The Malevolent Mine
by LMXB
Summary: A new found supply of naquadah in the Pegasus Galaxy creates more problems than it solves when the trading team go MIA. Features Keller, Lorne, Team Sheppard and Beckett.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Neither Stargate Atlantis nor any of the characters belong to me. If they did I would not have axed the show!

**A/N:** This is a sequel to my previous SGA story. Although it can be a stand alone story it does continue relationships built in the other story. This is a R/K story, but features lots of Lorne and the rest of Sheppard's team. Feedback, good and bad, is always appreciated. Enjoy

* * *

"Major Lorne you are back earlier than expected. Was there a problem?" Woolsey greeted as Lorne walked up the stairs to Woolsey's office.

"Not really sir. The good news is it appears that they have a supply of naquadah."

"Naquadah?" Questioned Woolsey. "Are you sure?"

"They allowed us to test a sample and it came back positive. They apparently mine it on the planet, but were reluctant to show us the mines. They are however, willing to trade."

"They are? For what?" Woolsey asked as he entered his office and sat down.

"Well right now they would like medical aid."

"I hope Major that you are not about to tell me you may have brought a viral infection into the city."

"No sir." Lorne replied, trying to keep his temper in check. "It appears there was a mining accident recently. There were many wounded. Mainly broken bones, a few more serious injuries including burns and they would be grateful for any assistance. In return they would give us enough naquadah to build ten generators."

"That many? I am impressed Major. I am afraid however, that the infirmary is rather short staffed at the moment. You will be limited to only one doctor. I will inform Dr Keller. You have a go as soon as the medic is ready." Woolsey was about to tap his earpiece when he became aware that Lorne was not going. "Is there a problem Major?"

"Well, I feel it would be best to take a detachment of marines as well."

"Have they displayed hostile behaviour?"

"No."

"Are the heavily armed?"

"No."

"Do they carry weapons?"

"No."

"So what is the problem?"

"I just feel that thy are hiding something."

"You want me to stretch the resources of this city because of a hunch?"

"Better safe than sorry, especially in this galaxy."

"Major if we sent out an extra detachment of marines every time something felt wrong, we would have to consider bringing back The Draft in order to maintain numbers. I need something more than a hunch."

"First off Sir it is more than a hunch. They were clearly trying to hide something. Secondly, why are they mining naquadah? There was no sign of them using it at the settlement. If they don't use it, they must be selling it to someone. None of the races we have come across use it so that would suggest that they are selling it to a new race. A race that uses naquadah is most definitely a potential threat." Lorne paused and then went in for the kill. "Finally and with all due respect Sir I would like to remind you that while Colonel Sheppard is off-world I am the ranking officer and the placement of the marines falls under my jurisdiction. And I am going to order an extra detachment to accompany my team back to the planet. They will go in a second jumper which will remain cloaked, so not to upset the natives." Woolsey was momentarily stunned. By the time his was halfway towards recovering Lorne was already out of the door.

Having made the necessary preparations Lorne made his way to the jumper bay. He immediately made his way over to the second jumper and carefully explained the orders to the marines before turning back to his jumper. He was greeted by his men struggling to carry large bags up the ramp into the jumper. "Young what is all that stuff?" He asked.

"Ask the doc." The airman said, before adding the customary, "Sir."

Lorne, already in a bad mood after the Woolsey meeting stormed off towards the infirmary. Seeing Keller and Beckett in the corner he walked over and said, "Doc need your help sorting out your staff."

"Major!" Jennifer greeted, as she turned round. Seeing how tense Lorne was she quickly added, "Is something wrong? What happened?"

"Well one of your members of staff is currently loading my jumper with so much junk it is not going to take off. So please could you sort whoever it is out and get my jumper cleared. There is only so much incompetence I can take in one day. Thank you."

"Oh boy." Carson said quietly.

"No." Jennifer said.

"What?" Lorne questioned.

"I said no. You gave a list of ailments to Woolsey, including fractures and burns. Treatment of those requires a lot of equipment. I can't just wave my hands and unbreak a leg. Splints will be required. Possibly surgery as well, which in turn will require proper surgical equipment. Woolsey is under the impression that the people are to much of a security risk to bring back here so all treatment must be performed on the planet. If you have a problem with his assessment I suggest that you talk to him. In the mean time I have to get changed. I will see you on the jumper." With that she stormed out.

"Damn I put my foot in it. I didn't think it would be the doc coming with us."

"I know lad. But even if it weren't Jennifer, calling any of her staff incompetent is not likely to get ya into her good books now is it?"

"Sorry. I am just having a very bad day."

"Well I am sure there will plenty of time on the flight to apologise."

"Yeah, thanks." Lorne said before sheepishly returning to the jumper bay, via the armoury, to start the mission.

As he entered the jumper he ensured his team were in place. "Everyone here?"

"Yes Sir. The doc is up front."

Lorne shut the jumper door and headed to the pilot seat, trying to ignore the glares from Jennifer. Having radioed the marines in the other jumper he contacted the control room and got a go for launch.

After the jumpers had emerged through the gate Lorne checked that the second one had cloaked. He then turned to Jennifer and said. "I am sorry. I was way out of line. None of your staff are incompetent. I was just venting, I had had a run in with Woolsey."

Jennifer's expression softened and she said. "You should not let him get to you."

"I know, but he rubs me up the wrong way." Lorne explained. "So am I forgiven?" He flashed a smile.

"You are on probation." Jennifer smiled back. "So how long until we are at the settlement?"

"Should be there in about twenty minutes. How come you drew the short straw?"

"There are four medical teams off-world at the moment so we were already on a skeleton staff. Carson and I were the only two on duty when Woolsey radioed and Carson suggested I might fancy 'a wee bit of fresh air', mainly cos he has a date tonight. Besides Woolsey has been trying to get me off-world for the last couple of weeks so.." She trailed off.

"Beckett has a date already? He has only been back a little while. Maybe I should put on a Scottish accent." Lorne mused.

When they landed outside the settlement Lorne asked, "Do you need to take all this gear with you? I mean could you assess first and come back."

"But then I would waste time coming back. This way I can assess and treat quicker and we will be back on Atlantis sooner." Jennifer explained.

"Fine, but you can write me a sick note to get out of Woolsey meetings for a month." Lorne muttered. "But before we go I just need to check in with the marines." Tapping his earpiece he said, "Resnick do you read?"

"Affirmative Sir. We are about a hundred metres from your location."

"Good. Remember you are not really here. Do not leave the jumper unless I signal you or any of our life signs mysteriously vanishes. First sign of trouble get back-up."

"Yes Sir."

Breaking of the transmission Lorne notice how worried Jennifer was looking. "I thought they were friendly and peaceful?" She asked.

"They are." Lorne smiled. "But you can't be too careful."


	2. Chapter 2

When they entered the main settlement they were approached by a small group and greeted by the leader. "Major Lorne. Welcome back."

"Chief Eisberg." Lorne replied. "This is Dr Keller, she will help your people."

"Dr Keller, it is a pleasure to meet you. I thank you for all the help you will give." Eisberg responded with a warm expression. "We have the injured in a building over there. My son Annett will show you the way." He turned to a younger man and nodded.

The younger man stepped forward and said, "Dr Keller this way please." Before heading off to the temporary infirmary.

As soon as Jennifer entered the building she opened up her bag, removed some gloves and started to examine the masses of patients, whilst Lorne's team stood in the background and responded to any instructions she threw their way. Annett moved to the side the room, where a local man was standing. Following a whispered conversation Annett returned to Lorne. "I hope you will excuse me, but I have other matters to attend to. My man Sartori over there." He motioned to the man he had just talked to. "Will provide any assistance that you need." With that he left the building.

Two hours later Jennifer had finished the triage and was now treating the injured as quickly as she could. Although none of the injuries were life-threatening most of the men were in pain and at risk of infection. Lorne and his men offered any assistance that they could, but were generally ordered to the other side of the room.

As Jennifer removed the dressing on the latest patient and probed the wound her facial expression changed to one of surprise. She ran her scanner over the wound and her expression changed to one of worry. This was noticed by both Lorne and the ever-watching Sartori. They both moved towards her.

"Is there a problem Dr Keller?" Sartori asked as he quickly approached them.

"It is just that the wound is infected and he appears to still have some shrapnel in his abdomen. He requires a lot of work. Could you get me some fresh water and clean cloths please?"

Not looking entirely convinced he replied, "Of course," and left the room.

"So what is really wrong?" Lorne asked quietly hoping not to draw the attention of other patients.

"This didn't happen from a mining accident." Jennifer said in hushed tones pointing at the wound. "It is a gunshot."

"You sure?" Lorne asked. Jennifer turned to face him wearing a look, Lorne could best describe as distain. "Ok stupid question. Of course you are sure. Any of the others have injuries not caused by a mining accident."

"Although not what we might expect on Earth, it is possible the other injuries I have seen so far have been caused by a mining accident. But they could have been caused by something else."

"How long till you finish up here?"

"At least another four hours." Jennifer replied.

"Ok, let me know if you find anything else. And Doc do not go anywhere unless accompanied."

Jennifer nodded just as Sartori returned with the items Jennifer had asked for. When she received them she went to work on the patient trying to subtly remove the bullet. "May I ask what you are doing Dr Keller?" Sartori asked.

"I am trying to remove the shrapnel from the wound. Would you mind standing back, you are blocking the light." Jennifer replied.

"Of course." Sartori turned and headed back to the entrance, stopping on route to speak to one of the patients. After a brief exchange he stood close enough to Lorne and Keller that he could hear any conversation they might have.

As soon as Jennifer had removed the bullet Sartori returned to her side. "Would you like me to dispose of the shrapnel doctor?"

Jennifer smiled and answered, "Thank you." She then handed him a plastic dish containing a small piece of metal. Sartori almost looked relieved when he saw the contents of the dish, which he silently accepted. He then hurried out of the room again.

"Don't mean to question you doc but that could have been useful to examine."

"That is why I kept what I pulled out." Jennifer opened her palm and revealed the bullet. Lorne quickly relieved her of the bullet and asked.

"How did you manage that?"

"I will tell you later." She replied as she redressed the wound and went onto the next patient.

Eventually Annett returned to the building and went straight to Sartori. Following another hushed exchange he walked towards Lorne and said, "Perhaps I could interest you and your men, not to mention your doctor, with some refreshments."

"That sounds nice. Thank you." Lorne replied, much to the relief of his men. He then walked over to Jennifer. "Doc. Time to take a break."

"Not a good time. I still need to.."

"Doc any of these patients going to die if you take a ten minute break?"

"No. But-" Jennifer started.

"No buts. Time to stop and rest." Leaning closer to Jennifer he whispered. "Remember it is me Ronon will beat up if you don't look after yourself on this mission. So I would consider it a personal favour if you agreed."

"Fine. But only ten minutes."

"Good. Let's go." As Lorne and Jennifer reached Annett he smiled and led them to a small tavern where refreshments were waiting. He let them take their seats then wondered over to another group of men.

"Young, I need you to take what I am about to pass you and when you are not being watched examine it. See if it anything like we have seen before."

Before Young could ask any questions, the settlement's chief, Eisberg approached the table.

"May I?" He questioned as he motioned towards an empty seat.

"Of course." Lorne replied.

"I wish to thank you doctor." Eisberg began after he had sat down. "I hear that you are working wonders."

"I have done nothing really, just cleaned a few wounds and administered pain killers." Jennifer smiled. "Did you loose many men in the accident?"

"Twenty I have been told. It is a great shame to loose so many lives." He confessed.

"It must put a great strain on your mining efforts loosing so many. We thank you for being able to spare so much naquadah." Lorne said.

"It would be logical to conclude that it had reduced productivity, but Annett runs a tight ship and everyone has doubled their efforts. In fact since the accident we are extracting more naquadah per day than ever before. I do not know how he does it."

"You must be very proud of your son." Jennifer said.

"Indeed I am. And I am sure he will one day be a worthy successor." The chieftain smiled.

"Out of interest, if you don't mind me asking, who do you usually sell the naquadah to?" Lorne asked.

"To a very private race. They come once a year and collect the naquadah then disappear. We know virtually nothing about them." Eisberg confessed. "Annett deals with them now, he may be able to shed some more light on them for you." He looked round the room. "I am sorry he appears to have gone. Let me find him for you."

When the group was alone at the table once more Lorne said, "Something funny is going on here. I don't know what, but I am not buying into the mining accident story so keep your guard up at all time."

All of his men replied, "Yes Sir."

"I am going outside to try to check in with the marines. Do not let the doc out of you sight." He warned.

Outside the tavern Lorne moved to a secluded spot to try his radio. He stopped however when he heard Annett's voice laced with anger. "I told you to stop anything like that happening. You were to ensure that those patients were kept away from the others. Are you sure you are not mistaken."

"Wald had a prime view from his bed. He saw the whole exchange." Sartori answered.

The conversation went silent for several moments. Then Annett spoke. "Lets not worry about it now. Their doctor is nearly finished. We will encourage them to load up their reward now, rather than when the doctor is finished and they will be out of the way tonight."

"Annett are you in here?" Another voice entered the discussion. Lorne placed it as the Chieftain Eisberg. "You are being most rude to our guests."

"Sorry father, but I need to manage the mine. I will be out shortly."

"See that you are …" Eisberg started, but Lorne was already making his way back to the tavern. He immediately noticed Young was not at the table. Before he could question his whereabouts, the young British member of his team, Kenyon said. "He is tying his shoe lace. When Young finally emerged from under the table he said. "Not like anything I have seen before, but appears to be from a hand gun." Lorne nodded.

"Ok. I get the impression they want us gone as much as we want to leave. So lets finish up here ASAP. You ready doc?"

Jennifer nodded and the group headed back to the temporary infirmary.


	3. Chapter 3

In the makeshift infirmary Jennifer was hunched over another patient. As she cut off the tape she sighed out of exhaustion.

"You ok doc?" Lorne asked with concern.

"Yeah just tired. Looking forward to going back." Jennifer replied as she made a few notes.

"Ah doctor you are nearly finished." Annett said as he approached. He turned towards Lorne. "Perhaps you and your men would like to start loading the naquadah, as you call it, into your ship?"

Lorne turned to the chieftain's son and said, "But our doctor is not finished yet."

"True, but I can see that she is working hard and it is clear to me that you intend to keep your end of the bargain. So why not take the naquadah now as a sign of our good intentions?"

"If you don't mind me saying, you seem to be in a rush to get rid of us." Lorne said.

Annett's smile faltered briefly. "Major you see right through me. I believe my father has told you that the race we normally sell to are very private. They would be most upset to find you here. Unfortunately they are due to arrive soon and I would prefer to avoid any possible incidents. So yes I would be happier if you left sooner rather than later."

Lorne considered his answer. "Ok then. Young, Kenyon, Walters, please accompany Annett and his men and start loading the naquadah."

"You are not coming to Major? I can assure you your doctor will be safe." Annett said. The tone in his voice though struck an alarm bell in Lorne's mind.

"I am sure she will be, but I am meant to assist the doctor. So I am afraid it will be down to my men to do all the heavy work."

An expression flashed across Annett's face, although Lorne could not quite place if it was anger or disappointment. Having quickly recovered the young man said. "Very well. I once again leave at your disposal Sartori, please do not hesitate to ask him for anything that you might require." Turning to Lorne's men he continued. "If you would like to follow me."

Lorne returned to his position at the side of Jennifer, "How long do you think you will be doc?" He asked.

"This is the last one. It is a simple cleaning of the wound. But I will need to come back next week to check on some of the injuries."

"We can negotiate that later. Right now home seems like a good option."

"Ok. Can you just put those dressings in one of my bags." Jennifer said as she irrigated the wound. Lorne nodded and started packing the supplies.

Thirty minutes later Jennifer signalled that she was done and Lorne radioed Young. "Young come in."

"Go ahead Sir."

"You done yet?"

"On the final trip now Sir. We are just picking up the last lot of heavy naquadah now. Do you want us to come back to the village when we are done loading the jumper?"

"No we will meet you at the jumper."

"Roger that."

"Ok doc you ready?" Lorne asked as he picked up some of the, now mainly empty, bags, which had weighed his team down on the way to the village. Jennifer nodded and picked up the final bag. Before they had made it out of the door Sartori approached.

"Are you leaving?"

"Yes. All done here and your boss was keen for us to go so we are going." Lorne replied.

"Well please let me help you with the bags." Sartori replied to eagerly for Lorne's liking.

"Thanks but we are fine."

"As you wish. Please allow me to fetch Eisberg. He will wish to thank you personally." Sartori was out of the building before Lorne could answer.

Lorne immediately placed the bags on the floor, removed his handgun holster from his leg and gave it to Jennifer. "Put this on." He ordered.

"Why?" Jennifer asked as she strapped the holster to her leg.

"Cos I have a bad feeling. Our watcher seems to be trying to delay us now. Something is wrong with this picture, just wish I knew what." Lorne replied as he picked the bags up again. The pair made their way to the middle of the camp where Eisberg was waiting.

"Once again thank you doctor for your efforts. Are you sure you will not take up my offer of resting here for the rest of the night?" The old leader asked.

"Thank you, but we should really be going. Our people are expecting us." Lorne replied.

"Very well. Would you like some one to act as a guide? Although I am sure you are a skilled warrior, there is barely any moon tonight an the route to your vessel will not be lit."

"Don't worry about us. We have torches. It is not far anyway." Lorne replied. "Until next time then."

"I look forward to it. Goodbye Major, doctor."

As soon as they were clear of the settlement Lorne said, "You ok upping the pace?"

"Ok." Jennifer replied, although her voice did not sound so sure.

The two hurried through the darkened landscape as Lorne tried to reach Young on the radio. "Damn." He muttered after a couple of attempts.

He was about to attempt to reach the marines when Jennifer appeared to trip and fell to the ground. Lorne immediately stopped in his tracks and quickly kneeled besides the doctor. "Doc you ok?" He reached out his hand to gently shake her when a jolt ran through his body and the world turned black.


	4. Chapter 4

As Colonel Sheppard and his team crossed the horizon and stepped foot in Atlantis once more Chuck jogged down the steps.

"Welcome back Colonel." Chuck greeted.

Shepard could immediately tell that something was not right and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Woolsey wants to see you in his office immediately."

Sheppard nodded and sprinted up the stairs, quickly followed by Ronon and Teyla. McKay rolled his eyes, muttered, "what now?" Then followed his team up.

Sheppard knocked on the doorframe and Woolsey nodded for him to enter. Seeing the rest of his team enter as well he sighed. "There is no need for you all to be here."

McKay immediately turned and left. Ronon and Teyla remained where they were. "Really it would be best if you weren't here. I have a disciplinary matter to discuss with Colonel Sheppard."

Both Ronon and Teyla looked to Sheppard who nodded. Nodding back they left the office, shutting the door behind them.

"Please take a seat Colonel."

Sheppard uneasily sat down and waited.

"I take it there were no problems with the last mission?" Woolsey started.

"Nope."

"Good. Well then I can move onto a more unpleasant business. While you were away I had a run in with Major Lorne."

"A run in?" Sheppard asked.

"Yes. To be honest it is not the first time he has been hostile towards me. In the past I put it down to teething problems, but it has gone beyond that now."

"What the hell happened?" Sheppard asked, wondering what his second in command had done to upset Woolsey.

As Woolsey recounted the earlier exchange regarding the use of marines Sheppard sat and listened concern washing over him. Having finished Woolsey asked, "So what are you planning on doing."

"Well I can't do anything until I have spoken to Lorne. But to be honest if Lorne felt it was necessary to take an extra detachment of marines I back him one hundred percent."

"Colonel I feel that you are missing the point, he overruled my authority." Woolsey retorted surprised.

"Firstly in my absence that is his right and secondly he did it in a private exchange so-" He was cut-off by the stargate flashing into life. "Are we expecting anyone?" He asked.

"No." Woolsey replied heading to the control room.

"We are receiving an IDC." Chuck announced. "It is Private Cole."

"Lower the shield." Woolsey ordered.

"I didn't know he was off-world." Sheppard said.

"He was part of the detachment Major Lorne took with him." Woolsey explained as a puddle jumper came through the gate.

Sheppard tapped his earpiece. "Private park the jumper then report to the briefing room ASAP." He tapped it again. "Ronon, Teyla, Rodney you better get to the briefing room."

When Ronon and Teyla quickly followed by McKay reached the briefing room Ronon asked, "What's up?"

"Potential problem on Lorne's mission. The short story is he found a planet, which mined naquadah."

"Naquadah? Really? That is good. Do you know what we could-"

"McKay!" Sheppard exclaimed. "The naquadah is not the most important part of the story."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Anyway, it seems there was a mining accident recently and in exchange for some medical aid they would give us some naquadah. However, Lorne had a bad feeling and took an extra detachment of marines with him. One of whom just returned through the gate."

"Why?" Ronon asked.

"That is what we are about to find out." Sheppard replied as he signalled for Private Cole to enter the room. "So what happened?" Sheppard asked.

"We lost them Sir. Lieutenant Resnick ordered me to fly back and get help as per Major Lorne's instructions."

"Lost who exactly?" Sheppard asked.

"Major Lorne's team Sir."

"What do you mean lost?" Sheppard prompted.

"They disappeared of the lifesign detector?"

"All of them? At the same time?" Woolsey questioned.

"Yes and not quite Sir."

"Well what happened?" Sheppard probed.

"I don't know Sir."

"Private Cole, I know you are new and have probably never done this before, but I need as full answers as possible ok?"

"Yes Sir. Sorry Sir." The young Private paused and then started again. "Major Lorne asked us to remain cloaked away from his jumper and the settlement and await orders. We waited, but saw no signs of trouble until about two hours ago. The dots split up."

"I'm sorry, dots?" McKay interrupted. "You can not seriously be telling me you are describing the output of a really complicated and ingenious device as dots."

"McKay not helping." Sheppard growled. "Ok so the lifesigns from our guys, which appeared as dots on the screen split up." He prompted the young and now very nervous looking marine.

"Two remained in the settlement, the other three seemed to make lots of trips from somewhere outside the settlement to the jumper."

"They could have been loading the naquadah." Woolsey suggested. Sheppard nodded in agreement and motioned for the young marine to continue.

"Well the three dots headed back to the area outside the settlement, but then diverted and headed somewhere else and disappeared. About the same time, the two dots, which had started heading back to the jumper, suddenly changed course and headed towards where the three dots had been and then they disappeared. Lieutenant Resnick ordered me to come for backup whist he and the others searched the area."

"Thank you private. It was a good thing you were there." Sheppard said whilst looking at Woolsey. "Recommend my team and another detachment of marines. Leaving immediately."

"Colonel we have just lost five personal for an unknown reason. Now you want me to send more into a potential danger zone without knowing more details."

"Well you won't know more details until we have investigated. If Lorne could radio for backup he would have done so, the fact he hasn't is likely to be because he his hurt or his radio had been taken away. Either way we need to move now." Sheppard finished, raising his voice in frustration at the end.

"This is highly irregular." Woolsey started. "But if we can save our lost personal. Very well then, but check in to occur every thirty minutes without fail. I will attempt to divert the Apollo, but it is still four days away."

"Understood. Just one more question, who was the medic?" Sheppard asked as he, his team and Private Cole stood to leave."

"Dr Keller." Woolsey answered.

Sheppard's team all turned their focus to Ronon who now had a fierce look in his eyes. Ignoring them all, he hurried out of the briefing room straight for the jumper bay. Sheppard, Teyla and McKay just exchanged worried glances.


	5. Chapter 5

Lorne slowly started to regain some of his senses. First he felt pain shooting through his head. He opened his eyes, but the room was unlit and everything was shrouded in darkness. As he moved his hand to his head he realised that his hands were in chains. He tried to sit up ignoring the wave of nausea and dizziness that swept over him.

"You might want to take it easy Sir. The stunners have some after effects."

"Young is that you?" Lorne asked trying to ignore the throbbing in his head.

"Yes Sir."

"What happ.. Where's the doc?" Lorne asked as he began to remember why he was there.

"Still out Sir. She was brought in here with you."

"Where is here?"

"No idea we were all out when we were brought in." "Young explained.

"What happened to you?" Lorne asked as he tried to locate his tac vest and radio.

"They took everything Sir." Young started. "We were collecting the final part of the shipment when Annett's men stunned us. Next thing we know we are here."

Lorne's next question was cut off by the soft moan emanating from Jennifer.

"Easy there doc. Don't try any sudden movements." Lorne said.

"What happened?" She groggily asked.

"Appears Annett no longer wanted to get rid of us in a hurry." Lorne replied as he tried to move towards her. It was then he realised that his ankles were also in chains. He did not have much time to dwell on that though as the door to their cell opened letting in blinding light.

"Ah, you are awake Major."

"I thought you wanted us off your planet." Lorne said trying to shield his eyes.

"I did. But you see the recent accident left us rather short staffed in the mine and our usual supply of replacements was not as fruitful as normal. So I began to think about what I could do to remedy this situation. Then you and your men came along and it seemed the perfect opportunity to restock as it were."

"You bastar………argh" Lorne cried.

"Now Major I suggest you don't do that again. Let me explain about your chains. They are connected to the remote controls, which each guard in the mine has. If you act out of line a quick press of the remote will send a current through the chains and cause you pain." As he said this he pressed down on the remote and caused everyone in the cell to cry out in pain. "Of course this is the most crude form of punishment, but surprisingly effective. I should warn you though there are far more severe punishments for not working and meeting your quotas and any sign of insurrection results in death. Now if you will excuse me." With that Annett turned nodded to a guard and left.

Within seconds they were all being roughly pulled to their feet and being moved outside their cell. Eventually they reached a small wire cage, which they were shoved into. The door was shut behind them and they began to descend. The journey down seemed to be never ending. The lower they went the darker it got, until they could no longer see the light from the top. With every passing metre the air became colder and damper. The cage creaked and rocked.

"Ok has anyone got anything that resembles a weapon on them?" Lorne asked.

A chorus of nos came from the cage, except for a quiet feminine sounding "yes."

"Doc?" Lorne questioned. "What have you got?"

"Knives."

"As in multiple knives?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I thought we were meant to carry concealed knives on all missions."

"We are. But they found all mine. How come they………oh Ronon." Lorne Realised. "So how many do you have?"

"Definitely four."

"I'm impressed doc."

"Yeah well I am not sure what good they are going to do unless we can get the chains off."

"Would a little bit of optimism be too much to ask?" Lorne quipped.

"Um Sir?"

"Yes Young?"

"I can see a light from below."

"Ok everyone try your best to stick together." Lorne said as the cage ended its decent.

As it jarred to a stop the door opened and they were pulled from the cage by a group of armed guards. They were led down damp dark tunnels until eventually a cavern opened up. One of the guards left and went towards another guard sitting on some crates. After a brief discussion the previously seated guard approached. He paced in front of the group then read something of an item resembling a clipboard. He turned to another guard.

"These two." He started and pointed at Young and Walters. "Sector B." After they were led off he pointed to Lorne and Kenyon. "Sector G."

As a guard prodded Lorne's back he said. "No way. She stays with me."

The guard who was giving orders immediately pressed a button on the remote causing Lorne to gasp in pain and fall to his knees. "You don't get to decided." He sneered. "Take them."

Struggling to his feet again Lorne once again was defiant. "I said no."

The head guard shook his head and operated the control again. Once Lorne had fallen to his knees once more he approached and unleashed a couple of quick kicks to his ribs.

"No." Jennifer cried. "Leave him alone." As she tried to reach Lorne she said, "Evan I will be fine. Do as he says."

"Listen to your woman or she will be punished next."

Lorne and Jennifer locked gazes. On seeing her resolve and a brief nod, Lorne allowed himself to be dragged off with Kenyon.

"Now now where shall we put you?" The head guard asked as he broke into Jennifer's personal space. "I do not believe that you would last very long mining. Maybe you would like to work in entertainment instead." He grinned, as he ran a hand over her face.

"Go to hell." Jennifer spat back.

Backhanding her across her face he replied. "I believe it is you who will be going to hell. Take her to sector D."


	6. Chapter 6

As Jennifer was led through the narrow, dark and damp tunnels she tried her best to remember the path she was taking. The light was too bad to notice anything to mark her passage so instead she tried counting steps and remembering turns. Unfortunately after half an hour she was fairly sure she had already forgotten half of the turns she had made. Eventually she heard banging from ahead and soon she was taken down a side tunnel where she could make out the outlines of more people. She was roughly shoved into the side of the mine and the guard went over to speak to yet another guard. After a brief conversation the guard who had escorted her down left back down the passage. The guard with whom he had just been conversing approached Jennifer.

"Welcome to Section D." He said as he raised his remote. Jennifer immediately flinched and shut her eyes, fearing the worse. When she felt no pain and heard the guard laugh she opened her eyes and to her surprise realised that the chains round her wrists had been removed. The guard threw the chains into a pile and roughly pulled Jennifer further down the tunnel, they passed several miners along the way. They all seemed to be paired up. "Burta." He called, causing a young man to turn round. "Meet your new partner. Explain the drill and get back to work." With that Jennifer was thrust towards the young man and the guard moved away.

"Have you ever mined before?" He asked as he held a candle up to Jennifer's face. Jennifer shook her head.

"Ok it is simple. We dig into the sidewall further up, until you can crawl in and plant the explosive. You will crawl into the small crack that we dig and plant an explosive. I pull you out. The explosive goes off causing the wall to collapse and the mineral be exposed for the others to come and extract. Then tomorrow we dig into the sidewall further up, and start all over again. Any questions?"

"Why did they take my chains off?"

"Firstly you will need both arms fully extendable when you are crawling into the cracks. Secondly down here we are furthest from the exit and so have zero chance of escape. Anything else?"

"What happened to your last partner?"

"He was not far enough away from the explosion." Burta explained. Jennifer started to feel very sick. "Relax I will not let that happen to you. We are now a team, if either of us makes a mistake we are both punished." Seeing the panic stricken look on her face despite the dim light he said in a kinder tone, "Do you have a name?"

Jennifer nodded and said shakily, "Jennifer."

"Ok then Jennifer, I am Burta. One final question, are you wearing anything under your shirt? Because if you are I suggest to remove your shirt so you have something warm to wear after the shift ends."

Jennifer struggled with her cold hands to undo the buttons. Eventually she removed her shirt, revealing her standard issue black T-shirt. Burta nodded and took her shirt, hanging it with others in the corner. He returned and gave her an axe. "Don't worry the rock here is pretty soft, until you reach the mineral anyway." He led Jennifer down the tunnel. Eventually he stopped in front of a hole in the side of the tunnel. "Ok here is where we dig. We have two more hours to make this hole as big as possible so you can fit in. Then we have to place the explosives."

Burta proceeded to show Jennifer the most efficient way of carving into the rock. However, despite his expertise the hole did not seem to look particularly big. Knowing she would have to crawl in Jennifer chipped away with the axe as fast as she could so that every muscle in her upper body was screaming for her to stop. Ignoring the pain, driven by fear, she kept digging. Soon she was inside the hole chiselling away, trying to make it deeper. If the hole was not deep enough they would be punished. With the hole still looking small a loud horn sounded and the guards walked along the side of the tunnel, handing out small sticks resembling dynamite to each pair. When a guard reached Jennifer she immediately recognised him as the guard who released her from her chains earlier. He passed her the explosive, then said,

"Don't drop it. It is volatile." He then allowed a smile to spread across his face and asked, "did your partner tell you why this is called Section D?"

Jennifer dumbly shook her head.

The smile on the guards face grew. "It is because so many of the miners _die_ planting the explosives."

Once the guard had moved on Burta turned to Jennifer. "You need to go as far as you can and place the explosive in a crack. Shout to me and on my say so break off the top. I pull you out and it goes bang."

Ignoring all her instincts telling her that crawling into a very small space with a volatile explosive was an idea lemmings would be proud of she started her crawl, which was more of a squeeze. As she made her way into the tiny shaft she began to understand why the guards had removed the chains. The tightness of the passage meant that she had to lever herself of the sides to propel herself through. She also understood why she had been advised to remove her shirt; water was flowing down the walls and through the crack she was navigating; she was already drenched and freezing. After what seemed like a few minutes Burta called. "How are you doing?"

"You sure you will be able to pull me out?"

"You need to trust me." He shouted back. Jennifer suddenly became aware that the already badly lit crawl space was now virtually pitch black. She then realised that Burta had followed her into the crack.

"What are you doing?" she shouted.

"If I don't come in I can't reach you to pull you out."

"Who pulls you out then?" Jennifer asked. She was not overwhelmed with confidence when Burta just laughed.

After what seemed like hours her hand reached forward only to hit a dead end. Moving her hands in front of her she confirmed she had reached the end and shouted back to Burta. "I can't go any further."

"Ok find a crack and place the explosive."

Jennifer groped around trying to find a small crack; eventually she felt a break in the rock and gently placed the explosive in it. "Done it." She called back.

"Ok in a minute another horn will sound, then on three you break the top of the explosive and I pull. Don't fight the tug."

"Ok." She shouted back and she waited. She waited some more, but still no horn. Stuck in the damp, cramped hole her thoughts began to wonder. She thought of her father, she thought of Ronon. She thought of all the reasons she did not want to die. She was thinking about how she had failed by not remembering the route she had followed when she was brought to this section. Then suddenly there was a horn.

"Here we go. One, two, three." Burta called. Jennifer snapped the top of the explosive and immediately felt herself being pulled backwards down the narrow shaft. Her body caught on every jagged rock lying in the shaft. Soon rather than being pulled she felt herself falling. She was then aware of someone grabbing her and throwing her down the tunnel. Seconds later an explosion rocked the tunnel and dust filled the air.


	7. Chapter 7

As Sheppard piloted the jumper towards the last known location of Lorne's team he tried to reach Resnick on the radio with no luck.

"McKay you picking them up on sensors?" Sheppard asked.

"No. I am not getting… hang on…that shouldn't happen."

"What shouldn't happen?"

"Their signals were suddenly picked up. It is like they suddenly beamed down to the planet." McKay said as he tinkered with a console.

"Where?"

"Oh, bearing of 270, one mile."

"Resnick this is Colonel Sheppard do you read?"

"Roger that."

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Sorry. Something down here is interfering with our radios. We thought that might explain Major Lorne's disappearance, so explored the area. No sign of them though."

"We will be at your location in two minutes." Sheppard replied. "Don't wonder off."

"McKay I need you to find out what is causing the interference and if there is a way to get round it." Sheppard then contacted the second jumper and ordered them to land at Resnick's position.

Having landed the jumper Sheppard headed out to meet Resnick's team.

"What do you know?" Sheppard asked.

"Not much Sir. We know roughly where their signals disappeared and started our search there. There was no sign of them there though. However we did see some locals emerge at one point. We searched the local area to find out where they had come from, but so far have found nothing. I thought you would prefer to handle the locals."

"You think they were involved?"

"Some of the locals were showing up on the lifesigns detector when our guys went missing. They seem to have reappeared, but our guys haven't."

"Ok. Can you recognise the locals you saw?"

"Yes Sir."

"Ok Resnick you come back to the village with me. Teyla you are with me as well. McKay see if you can tune the detector to see through the rocks. Make sure you have two marines with you at all time. Ronon take the rest of the marines and search this area, see if you can find out where they went." Sheppard looked Ronon straight in the eye and said, "Stay in radio contact and don't do anything stupid. That's an order." Ronon visibly tensed but said nothing.

After Teyla, Sheppard and Resnick were in the jumper Teyla questioned, "do you think it was wise leaving Ronon out there?"

"He is the best tracker." Sheppard shrugged as he began to fly the jumper towards the settlement. "Besides if there was some involvement by the villagers we need them alive to tell us what happened. If they are innocent, I think Ronon might not believe it."

Sheppard landed the Jumper just outside the settlement and the three proceeded on foot. When they reached the settlement they saw no one about. "Quiet isn't it?" Sheppard commented as he raised his P90.

"Over there." Teyla gestured towards a building on the far side of the settlement, from which light was shining through the windows. The three of them made their way to the building and carefully entered.

As Sheppard walked through the door a hush immediately descended on the room. "Hi. I am Colonel John Sheppard and I was hoping you could help us find some lost items." Sheppard greeted, never removing his hand from his P90.

A man cautiously approached and scanned Sheppard. "You are friends of Major Lorne?" He questioned.

"That's right." Sheppard answered.

"Then you are welcome here." The man replied breaking into a grin. "Please take a seat, let me get you a drink."

"Thanks but no thanks. Is your leader around?" Sheppard questioned as he lowered his gun.

"Eisberg? He will still be sleeping. But if it is important I can fetch him."

"That would be very helpful." Sheppard replied.

"Please take a seat I will get him." The man said before rushing from the building.

Sheppard, Teyla and Resnick made their way to the corner of the room and took a seat. Teyla leaned into Sheppard and whispered. "We seem to be being watched."

Looking round the room Sheppard saw fifteen pairs of eyes tracking their every movement. No one spoke.

Quietly as possible Sheppard asked. "You recognise anyone here Resnick?"

The marine scanned the room looking into all the eyes tracking him. Finally he replied, "no Sir."

When the young man came back into the building he approached Sheppard's table. "Chief Eisberg will be here shortly. He apologises for taking so long. Are you sure I can not get you a drink?"

"No we are fine." Sheppard replied. "How come you are open now? It seems a strange time for a tavern to be open."

"We are open all the time like the mines. The mines work in shifts and we are always ready to receive those who work hard in the ground below us." The man explained. When he finished his explanation the room once again fell into silence, which was not broken until the door opened once more and an elderly figure entered and approached Sheppard.

"You are friends of Major Lorne?" He asked.

"Yes." Sheppard replied.

"Then I welcome you to this humble settlement. I am Eisberg, leader of this place. What may I do for you?" The Chieftain greeted.

"Well, Major Lorne and his team never made it off the planet and we were hoping you could offer some assistance in finding them." Sheppard replied causing two things to happen. Firstly a look of shock passed over the elderly man's face. Secondly a chair scraped along the floor, the occupier of the chair then left the tavern.

"But they left here hours ago? Are you sure they are still on this planet?" Eisberg asked.

"Yes. We are sure. But there appears to be some interference from the mines effecting our equipment so we are having trouble locating them."

"As far as I knew they had all left, but …" Eisberg broke of and paused. "Please allow me to offer as many of my people as you want to help n the search."

"Sheppard come in please." McKay's voice came over the radio. Standing Sheppard excused himself and went outside.

"Go ahead McKay."

"I have found out why the sensors weren't working."

"And?"

"It was because the rocks are giving of a low level radiation which confuses the readings."

"Which you have adjusted for."

"I have calibrated the sensors but still can't get a reading."

"You sure you have done it right?"

"Of course I am sure."

"So you are saying they are not on the planet."

"No. I am saying that their signals are not being picked up. The sensors weren't working as the rocks are giving of a low level radiation. Up here I can adjust for that as the radiation only comes from one plane. But if they are underground the rocks would completely shield them and there is no way to detect them."

"So you are saying they are underground?"

"Possibly."

"Need more than a possibly here McKay."

"There are three possibilities. One they are underground. Two they were transported up to a ship, but if they were and the ship is still there the jumper would have detected it. Three they are," McKay paused, "dead."

"Ok so they are underground. If we got underground could you use the sensors?"

"No. Well maybe over a very short range. But it is highly unlikely and I don't-"

"Start working on it McKay. Sheppard out." Sheppard headed back to the tavern.

"Have you found them?" Eisberg asked.

"No. Was there any reason why they might have entered the mines?" Sheppard asked.

"We are careful about revealing the position of the mines to outsiders." Eisberg responded.

"Could Dr Keller have wanted to check the health of the miners to check for respiratory problems?" Teyla suggested.

"It is possible. Maybe my son asked her to look. But I was not aware of any such request. Do you believe they are down the mines?"

"I believe it is probable." Sheppard responded.

"Let me find my son and ask. I will send some of my men down the mines to search for your people. You understand that I can not reveal their location to you." Eisberg said. "But in the mean time you are welcome to borrow my people to search the area above ground."


	8. Chapter 8

Jennifer tried to open her eyes, but the dust in the air caused them to stream. Shutting them again she concentrated on breathing. However, the dust caused every breath to burn her throat. She was aware that she coughed, but could not hear it; instead her ears were filled with a ringing. She then felt a hand on her arm dragging her to her feet. Still unable to see she allowed herself to be dragged along a tunnel. Struggling to not stumble when the chains round her ankles caught. Eventually the hand on her arm pulled her to a halt and swung her round. She once again tried to open her eyes. They were now away from the dust storm she had found herself in moments before and tried blinking until she could see out of her eyes. Although still blurry she could recognise Burta in front of her. She tried to speak, but ended up spluttering instead. She became aware that the ringing in her ears was less severe than before and the sound of her coughing was filtering through to her brain.

Burta placed a finger under Jennifer's chin and forced her to look at him. "Told you it would be ok." He shouted, demonstrating his ears were also not quite right.

"Ok? I thought I was going to die. What went wrong?" Jennifer shouted back.

"Wrong? Nothing, that was normal. Now we must hurry." Burta replied and pulled Jennifer further along the tunnel.

As they moved along and the dust thinned and her eyes began to focus she became aware of the other miners/prisoners around her all blindly making their way down the tunnel. Everyone there was slightly built and she was sure the two in front of her could be no more than twelve. As they moved further along the tunnel it began to get lighter. Eventually Jennifer could see three guards standing in the tunnel ahead. Burta pulled Jennifer to one side and passed her the shirt she had given him earlier. Although slightly damp from the atmosphere, it was drier than what she was wearing already and when she put it on she began to feel warmer. When Burta had put on his own shirt he led Jennifer towards the guards who replaced the chains round the wrists of all the prisoners before leading them along another series of small, twisting, dark and damp tunnels. No one spoke, but several were still coughing up dust from the explosion. Just as Jennifer felt she could not walk any further some rusty iron gates at the end of a tunnel were opened and the prisoners pushed through. The gate slammed shut behind them and a lock clicked into place.

"This is where we sleep and eat." Burta explained. "Food can be found at the far end. Get some rest." With that he walked off disappearing into the murky light.

Feeling cold and alone Jennifer tried to focus on her new surroundings; she took in the open cavern she was in, which was littered with people. Although the light was bad, the whole area lit by sparsely placed candles. Her still sore eyes strained against the darkness and she searched for any of Lorne's team. As she stumbled forward a hand grasped round her forearm. She quickly spun round and found herself looking into Lorne's concerned eyes.

"Doc you ok?" He asked, Jennifer nodded. "We are set up over here." As he led her over to the rest of his team he said, "I thought you weren't going to get brought here. I was getting worried. Ronon is so going to kick my six for this."

"Not your fault." Jennifer said, but Lorne ignored her.

When they reached the rest of the team Jennifer immediately noticed Walters lying face down on the floor. The back of his shirt had been ripped. She immediately kneeled next to him, ignoring the protesting muscles her legs. "What happened?" She asked.

"He didn't work fast enough and got whipped fifteen times." Young replied, unable to keep the resentment out of his voice. He paused and spoke again, this time his voice was softer, "is there anything you can do?"

"If you can get me clean water I can irrigate the wound, but without any clean dressings it will be a very short term solution. All the pain meds were in my bag which was taken."

"My T-shirt is relatively clean and I have something like duck tape. Will that do?" Young asked.

"It might." Jennifer affirmed.

Seeing the questioning look on Lorne's face Young explained, "I borrowed it from the shaft I was in when I was repairing an axe."

"I'll fetch the water." Kenyon said, before disappearing.

Jennifer moved up to Walters' head and gently spoke. "It's Matt isn't it?"

"Yes ma'am." He responded.

"Ok Matt I need to take a look at your back, but it is going to hurt when I move your shirt."

"Do what you have to ma'am." He replied.

Jennifer took a deep breath and lifted the shirt and T-shirt away from his back. "Can one of you get some light?"

Lorne nodded and moved a candle to the area over Walter's back allowing Jennifer to see the extent of his wounds. It also allowed Yong and Lorne to take in the battered and dusty appearance of the young doctor.

When Kenyon returned with water Jennifer got to work, trying to cause as little pain as possible for Walters. When she had finished cleaning the area she taped parts of Young's t-shirt to Walters' back, then pulled his shirt down again. "That's all I can do." She said sounding almost defeated.

"You did great doc." Lorne replied, helping her to her feet.

"Lift up your shirt." Jennifer ordered when she was standing. Lorne looked confused.

"um doc…" He started.

"I want to look at your ribs, see if they broke anything." Jennifer explained. Realising she was referring to the incident earlier when they split up Lorne shrugged and said, "they are fine."

"Let me judge that."

Giving in Lorne raised his shirt revealing some bruising to his abdomen. Jennifer grabbed the candle and started to examine the area, every so often asking if an area was sore. Eventually she was happy everything was ok and stood up straight. "It just seems to be bruising."

"Told you." Lorne replied trying to look smug. "Now slow down. Sit and eat and tell me why the hell you look like," Lorne paused and searched for a suitable word, eventually he gave up and said, "that." As he wave his hand.

Jennifer looked down and took in her dusty appearance and her torn trousers, which must have caught on bits of rock. She then looked to Lorne's team, who in comparison looked very smart. Apart from a few streaks of dirt across their hands and faces and Walter's ripped shirt, they looked no different to normal. Jennifer sat down and described what had happened since they became separated. When she had finished Lorne turned to her.

"Doc you have to keep your head down and be very careful. We found out what the mining accident was. Apparently a group of slaves or prisoners, what ever you want to call them made a break. Did pretty well to start with, overpowered some guards and nearly made it out. Reinforcements arrived and a firefight broke out, causing a partial cave in. The people you were treating were the guards. The prisoners were executed, twenty-one in total. Since then the slightest sign of insurrection is dealt with severely. Best case a lashing like Walters. Worse case death."

"So are you saying we are not planning an escape?" Jennifer asked quietly.

"No. But it doesn't look overly hopeful. With these damn chains on we would be caught too quickly to do anything."

"Just grab one of those remote things. One of the buttons releases the chains." Jennifer replied.

"How do you know that?" Lorne asked surprised.

"In my section we don't wear the wrist chains while working." Jennifer shrugged as she ate some stale bread.

"Ok that's a start. Do you still have those knives?"

"Yeah. You want one?"

"Give one to me and one to Young. Keep the others on you, hidden. Don't use them until I tell you or you have to." Lorne turned towards Young. "Tomorrow see if you can find anyone who might know a route out of here. Promise them passage off the planet." As Lorne turned his attention back to Jennifer he saw her holding out two knives. Lorne hid one on himself then gave one to Young.

"I am going to take Kenyon and see if there are any unwanted useful supplies round here." Young said.

"Ok keep out of trouble." Lorne replied. He then sat next to Jennifer and asked, "how you doing doc?"

"Great. So far I have been kidnapped, thrown down a mine where I had to use muscles that I had only ever read about, then I got blown up. Just a normal day in Pegasus." Jennifer smiled ruefully. "On the bright side the food doesn't move."

"Yeah there is always that." Lorne replied. "You should try to get some sleep."

Jennifer placed her head on Lorne's shoulder and said, "probably. But the sooner I go to sleep the sooner I wake and have to start the hole tight space and explosive thing all over again."

"Hang in there. Ronon will be tearing the planet to pieces looking for you right now. Whether it is from him breaking in or us breaking out we will be free soon."


	9. Chapter 9

"We are wasting time searching here." Ronon growled in frustration. "We should be looking where they disappeared or interrogating the villagers."

"First off we have no proof that the villagers were involved. Well not all of them anyway. They are helping us search so for now we need to keep them on side. Secondly the area they disappeared is under surveillance in the hope who ever took our people will go back. If they see us there it will scare them off. Besides you could not find any entrance there." Sheppard replied. "Look you have been up for thirty-six hours straight. You need to rest."

Ronon kicked a nearby tree trunk in frustration. Sheppard signalled to Teyla who approached the angry warrior. "Ronon calm down. Jennifer will be fine." She began,

Ronon turned to her. "You don't know that."

"Have you not been training her?" Ronon did not reply so Teyla continued. "So she will be able to hold her own in a fight if she needs to. Besides Major Lorne is a more than capable soldier who will look after her." Instead of replying Ronon stalked off into the distance.

"Well that went well." Sheppard said as he approached Teyla.

"Guys I think I have something." McKay said emerging from a Jumper.

"Ronon get over here." Sheppard ordered as he and Teyla followed McKay into the Jumper.

"So have you found them?" Sheppard asked.

"No"

"But you know how?"

"No." McKay responded sounding disappointed.

"So what have you got?"

"Well as you know the sensors can't see into the mines because of the radiation. In some ways the rocks seem to be acting as a Gaussian cage, so there is nothing I can do about seeing inside."

"So you have nothing then." Sheppard responded sounding frustrated.

"No. Thanks to by ingenious nature I have programmed the sensors on the Jumper to trace the radiation." McKay said looking smug.

"So?" Sheppard asked.

McKay sighed. "I can map the mines."

"That's it?" Ronon asked.

"Look I know it is not perfect, but at least this way we should be able to see the entrances and know where to search. Plus when we are down there we know which way to go." McKay replied beginning to look dejected.

"Good work McKay." Sheppard said. "When will it be done?"

"Well the sensors are not designed for this and I am having to make them do several sweeps and then I will have to run some FFTs to extract the-"

"How long?" Sheppard interrupted.

"Another twenty maybe thirty minutes." McKay answered.

"Colonel Sheppard come in please." Sheppard's radio sounded.

"Go ahead Resnick." Sheppard answered.

"We have just caught someone."

"We will be right there." Sheppard responded before turning to Teyla and Ronon. "Lets go and.." He began before noticing Ronon was already out of the Jumper. He and Teyla headed out of the Jumper towards Resnick's position, with Sheppard shouting over his shoulder, "Keep working McKay."

En-route Sheppard tapped his radio once more. "Resnick be advised Ronon is heading your way. It will be safer to stay out of his path."

By the time Sheppard and Teyla reached Resnick, Ronon was busy interrogating the prisoner, who was adamantly denying all knowledge. Sheppard ordered Resnick and his men to leave the area, then with Teyla proceeded to carefully approach Ronon. "Ronon back off a minute and let me speak to him." Sheppard said. As Ronon landed another punch to the gut of the prisoner Sheppard added, "that is an order."

Ronon paused and looked at Sheppard. "Five minutes then he is mine." Ronon responded before turning away.

"Ok. You have a name?" Sheppard asked as he turned his attention to the prisoner, who was already displaying a few red marks on his face as well as a split lip. The prisoner remained silent. "The way I see it you have four minutes and fifty seconds before Ronon comes back. I will not be able to stop him a second time so if you have anything to say I suggest you say it in the remaining four minutes and forty-one seconds." The prisoner remained silent. "You see all we want are our people back. You return them we go. No more questions. We just leave and you to back to whatever it is you do here. If you don't tell us I will bring a whole army here to scour the planet an inch at a time. Of course if you don't say anything it won't effect you, as you will probably not be around by the time Ronon is done with you. In case you were wondering Ronon gets you back in three and a half minutes." The prisoner continued his silence. "I should warn you Ronon is not in the best mood right now. You see you kinda kidnapped his girlfriend so he is not very happy. And when Ronon is not happy he beats things up. In fact the last time I saw him this pissed he single handily killed thirty-three Wraith." Noticing the prisoner suddenly looking at Ronon Sheppard continued. "So I probably won't be able to stop him taking on the whole village and I know where my money would lie. One minute fifteen by the way." The prisoner still refused to talk. Ronon was now pacing behind Sheppard like a caged animal, menacingly glaring at the prisoner. "Ok so you don't want to talk. Well I am not a cruel man so you have any last requests? Any messages for a loved one? No I didn't think so." Sheppard paused and waited. "Ok your choice." Sheppard turned to leave and nodded to Ronon, who strided towards the prisoner.

"Wait!" The prisoner exclaimed. "They were taken to work the mines." He quickly said as he tried to shrink away from the approaching form of Ronon.

Sheppard held an arm out to stop Ronon and turned back to face the prisoner. "What do you mean work the mines?"

"To dig up the mineral."

"Where?"

"I don't know which mine they were taken to. I am a nobody in the village. I run errands. I was sent to find Annett and warn him you were here. All I know is they were taken to work the mines."

"Why would you do that? Why take our people?"

"There was a failed revolt in the mines and all those involved in the uprising were killed. That left us short handed. The next shipment of sla.. I mean workers is not due for another week and we are already behind schedule. Your men looked like they could be an asset to the operation so were taken."

Sheppard shook his head. "I need to know where."

"I told you I don't know. There are six different mines. I don't know which one they would have been taken to. I don't even know where they are. All I know is there is an entrance near here. I was told to wait for Annett here."

"Sheppard come in." McKay's voice cut in over the radio.

Sheppard stepped back and responded, "go ahead McKay."

"You better get back here."

"Understood." Cutting off the radio he turned to Resnick. "Do not let him out of your sight, he knows say too much for an errand boy." He then turned to Ronon and Teyla. "You two with me."


	10. Chapter 10

**WARNING** This chapter is much darker than previous ones and has acts of violence.

* * *

An alarm rang round the cavern causing Jennifer to suddenly wake up. Looking round she tried to get her bearings. On seeing the dimly lit cavern the memories of the previous day came flooding back, she grimaced.

"Morning doc." Lorne greeted holding out some bread and a cup of water. "You better eat this quickly we are going to be called for shortly." Jennifer took the bread and began eating. As an announcement echoed round the walls calling for Section G to report to the main gate. "That's me. Remember what I said about keeping your head down and out of trouble. See you later." With that Lorne and Kenyon headed to the entrance of the cavern.

Jennifer slowly stood, trying to ignore the burning sensation it caused in her muscles, and made her way over to Walters and Young. "How is your back?" She asked.

"Sore, but I'll be fine." He replied and tried to give a weak smile.

"Just remember not to piss of any of the guards today." Young warned.

"Yes Sir." Walters responded as another announcement sounded calling for Sector F personal.

"You ok doc?" Young asked.

"Yeah, just tired." Jennifer responded looking at her watch, she did a double take.

"I take it you didn't realise we just get four hours between shifts?" Young asked.

"No. They left that out of the induction tour." Jennifer replied.

Sector B were then called for. "See you later doc. Take care." Young said as he helped Walters to his feet. Jennifer nodded them off, then sat and pulled her knees to her chest, resting her head on her knees. She became, even despite the poor light, aware of a shadow close by. She looked up.

"Jennifer." Burta greeted. "Are you rested?" Seeing Jennifer pull a face he responded. "Do not worry you will get use to the hours and shifts soon enough."

"No offence but I don't want to. How long have you been here anyway?"

"It is hard to keep track of time, but probably a year." He shrugged.

"You never thought about escape?'

"Keep your voice down." He hissed. "That type of talk will get us both killed." He paused. "There is no escape. All those who have tried have died."

Jennifer could not respond as Sector D personal were ordered to report to the gate.

The group of workers slowly made their way down the dark tunnels. As they approached the area they had been working just hours before the air began to become coarser and scratched the throat with every breath. Jennifer soon realised that the dust caused by the explosion was still rampant in the tunnels. As they reached the entrance to their section, they all removed their shirts or jackets and were given their axes by yet another set of guards. Jennifer began to think that if all the guards did the mining there would be no need for prisoners. They proceeded to their designated areas and started digging small side tunnels.

After what seemed like hours of chipping away at the wall, Jennifer began to feel a weak vibration. She turned to Burta, but he seemed oblivious so she continued to dig. The guards walked up and down the tunnel every so often unleashing a stroke of their whip on those unfortunate enough to be judged to be working too slowly. Apart from the clinking of metal on stone and the occasional swish of the whip through the air, before the sickening sound of it impacting on a back, the work was done in silence. That was until a scream emanated ten metres from the left of Jennifer. She looked round and saw one of her fellow prisoners on the ground clutching his arm crying out. Instinct took over and she ran towards the source of the nose, ignoring the orders from the guards. Kneeling down she saw the fallen figure was just a boy of no more than eleven years. She tried to soothe him and looked at his wrist. It was obviously dislocated.

"I told you to remain at your post are you deaf?" A guard asked.

"I can help him." Jennifer said firmly never taking her eyes of the boy.

Before the guard could answer, another guard approached. "What is going on here?"

"The boy is wasting time. She abandoned her post." The first guard explained.

"He has dislocated his wrist. I can help him. I am a doctor." Jennifer spat out as she felt the boy's arm for other injuries.

The second guard, obviously the one in charge, drew his weapon and fired a round into the boy's head. The sound of the shot echoed round the tunnel. Jennifer stared at the now deceased boy in shock.

"I don't have time for weakness." The guard stated as anger welled in Jennifer.

Suddenly she lunged at the guard shouting, "you bastard."

Her lunge was cut off in its prime by the first guard grabbing her round the waist and throwing her into a wall, winding her in the process.

The guard in charge approached her. "Who is she? Where is her partner?"

Burta was brought forward. "She was brought in at the last shift."

"So you are new." The guard said turning his focus solely to Jennifer. "Let me explain, down here I and my fellow guards are in charge. If we say do something and you don't you will be punished. Attacking one of us results in death. But seeing as you are new, perhaps death would be to severe." He nodded to Burta and another prisoner. "Hold her."

They dragged her to her feet and held her spread-eagled against a wall so her back was exposed to the guard. He unhooked his whip from his belt and lashed her. As the whip hit her for the fifth time she screamed out in pain. By the tenth lash she fell unconscious. Satisfied the guard ordered Burta and the other prisoner to release her and return to their posts.

As Jennifer came to she was aware of two very contradictory feelings. Firstly the burning pain felt on her back and secondly the freezing of her front, which was lying in cold water. Trying to focus on something other than pain she suddenly saw the image of the young boy brutally shot by the guards. Tying to dislodge the memory she suddenly noticed the rumbling she had felt earlier, but this time was stronger. As she tried to decide if it was best to remain still and be ignored by the guards or move and risk their wrath, the decision was taken away from her. She felt both her arms being lifted up and the rest of her body soon followed.

"Can you walk?" A voice she recognised as Burta asked.

"I think so." She replied shakily.

"Good. We need to get out of here quickly. We are evacuating the tunnel."

"Why?"

"The tremors are growing worse. Even the guards are worried about a cave in." Burta explained.

Half stumbling after him, half being pulled along Jennifer made it out of the tunnel where they had been digging to the entrance of the section. Having struggled to put her shirt on over her sore and torn back she approached the guards ready to have her wrists chained once more. She held out her wrists trying to avoid looking at the guard's face.

"Look who we have here." The guard said as he secured the chains, causing the leader to approach. The leader then grabbed hold of Jennifer's face forcing her to look at him.

"You are very lucky that we are so behind and can't risk loosing a whole section. Else you would be down that tunnel digging for the next twelve hours contemplating obedience. As it is you get to finish early. As soon as the tunnel reopens you will be down here and expect you to work harder than anyone else here. Next time you disobey an order I will not be nearly so lenient. Do you understand?"

Jennifer nodded as much as she could with him gripping her face. "I can't hear you. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

The guard released her face and she stumbled back.

The group of prisoners were marched swiftly through the tunnels back to the sleeping area. Jennifer could not remember the walk, her thoughts stuck on the young boy and the searing pain in her back. When they entered the sleeping area no one else was around. Sensing her question Burta said.

"We were closest to the instability, the explosions yesterday probably caused it. So we were first to be evacuated. Your friends will arrive shortly." He gently led Jennifer to where he had fond her a few hours before. "You should not have done that. You were lucky. He could have killed you."

"What about the boy? There was no reason to-" Jennifer started visibly upset.

"He could no longer work. Even if treated he would not have been able to work for, what two weeks?" Burta calmly explained.

"You sound like you don't care."

"I learnt a long time ago not to get involved. It is the only way to stay alive." Burta started. "Unfortunately I have been partnered with you and you seem to have a death wish. Next time you do something so stupid I will be punished also. So it would be better for both of us if you ignore everyone else and obey the guards. If you don't we will both be killed." Jennifer looked to the ground.

"You should try resting, if you can. Your back needs to be kept as still as possible. Sleep I will explain to your friends."

"No." Jennifer burst out surprising Burta. "They can't find out. If they do they will do something very reckless and get themselves killed. You can not tell them."

"Will they not guess?"

"No. My shirt covers my back. They won't see the marks. I can blame my lack of movement on stiffness. Please don't tell them." Jennifer practically begged.

"If that is your wish. Out of interest is the water from your homeland laced with stupidity. Or are you just taught by your elders?" Burta asked.

"Sometimes I think both." Jennifer mused as she slowly lay down on her front.


	11. Chapter 11

Young and Walters made their way, with the rest of the prisoners, back to the cavern unsure why the shift had abruptly ended. Not wanting to upset the guards the journey was made in silence, both men hoping to ask someone in the cavern when they reached it. When they were pushed through the iron gate into the cavern Young helped Walters to the area they had slept several hours ago. However, on reaching the site he saw a strange man sitting against a wall very close to a figure on the ground. They slowed their approach trying to make out the scene in front of them. As they approached Walters asked, while straining against the darkness, "is that the doc?"

"Looks like it. I am going to investigate. Hang back till I signal." Young replied. Walters nodded in agreement. As Young neared the two figures the man looked up.

"Are you a friend of Jennifer's?" He asked.

Momentarily surprised by the use of he doctor's first name he took a while to respond. "Yes. What has happened to her?" He said eventually.

"She is just tired. Not use to the hard labour I would guess. Do not fear I mean no harm. I am partnered with Jennifer in the mine. If anything happens to her I would be punished. I was making sure she was safe until your return. Now you are here I will go."

Young was not sure if he believed the man and was debating whether or not to let him go. Finally he nodded to Walters, who moved over, and said. "Wait. Before you go can you tell me what happened? Why were we suddenly moved back here?"

"The tunnel we were working began to have a series of tremors, more violent than normal. They are afraid of a cave-in and can't afford to lose any more personal. We will wait until the danger has passed or they fall to behind in the schedule, then back we go."

"Sounds like you have done this before?"

"Yes. I have been here a long long time and have survived many cave-ins."

"Young. What's going on?" Lorne's voice sounded from behind.

"Cave-in risk so we are apparently stuck in here for a bit Sir." Young responded. As he turned round he took in Lorne's appearance. He was clutching his right side and keeping his back as still as possible. The shoulders of his shirt were ripped, Young guessed from a couple of swings of a whip. He then saw Kenyon standing behind the Major looking pale and scared.

"Run in with the guards. I'll live." Lorne replied, although his face grimaced with every word. Young helped Lorne sit down. As he finally made it to the floor he spotted Jennifer lying on the ground. "Is she ok?"

"Sleeping apparently." Young answered. "She was like that when we got here. This is…" Young trailed off.

"Burta." Burta finished for him. "I am partnered with Jennifer in the mine."

"He has been down here a long long time." Young added.

"Never thought about escape?" Lorne whispered.

"In the early days yes. But not now. Too many others have failed. The means to conduct such an act are beyond me."

"But if you have been down here a long time you must know the possible routes out of here." Lorne probed.

"If it was just down to routes I would be a free man. There are many, more difficult, obstacles to overcome." Burta answered.

"If someone had overcome the rest would you show them the way?" Lorne asked.

"For what? I have nothing to escape to. My world was destroyed by the Wraith. At least here I have food and a roof. If I escaped the people of this world would not accept me."

"What if you were offered passage to another world and assistance in tracking down any other survivors of your world?" Lorne questioned.

"I would say I have been here too long to believe in such dreams. Now if you will excuse me." Burta stood and left the group.

"Do you want me to-" Young started to ask.

"No give him time to think about what we have just said." Lorne answered, before grimacing once more. "How is your back Walters?"

"Better than yesterday Sir. Just hurts whenever I move. So definitely improving."

"Should I wake the doc so she can check you out Sir?" Young asked.

"No let her sleep. I'll be fine. Although if you could rustle up food and drink that would be good." Lorne said with his eyes shut.

"Yes sir." Young replied before heading off to find food, Walters slowly followed him.

Without opening his eyes Lorne said, "stop it Kenyon."

"Sir?"

"Stop blaming yourself."

"But it is my fault you were attacked. If I hadn't-"

"Don't make me make that an order." Lorne interrupted. "What happened was not your fault."

"But-"

"I mean it Kenyon no buts. If you continue to question yourself I am assigning you to Ronon for training." Lorne threatened, although he kept his tone light.

"Yes Sir."

Sensing the young airman was still not happy Lorne continued, "you know I could murder a pizza and an ice cold beer about now. How about you?"

"Just getting out of here would be good." Kenyon responded, somewhat distantly.

"Won't be long now." Lorne replied. "You should try looking on the bright side."

"What bright side?"

"Well firstly we have been Woolsey free for what, two, three days now? Then there is the educational experience of learning how to mine naquadah, you don't get taught that back home. The complete lack of Wraith and the whole not being eaten alive. Then there is the excellent company. Trust me that makes all the difference. I was stuck down a hole with a broken leg and Rodney McKay for company that was hell. This by comparison is a holiday."

"Here's some food Sir." Young interrupted as he returned with the food and drink Lorne had requested. He handed over the items and said, "permission to speak freely Sir."

"Go ahead." Lorne replied.

"You have it wrong. This is no holiday; it is the perfect plot of a movie. When we get out of here, I am going to try selling the rights. I was thinking I would be played by Jamie Foxx. Kenyon could be played by that English guy from Mission Impossible Three and Bend it like Beckham, Jonathan Rhys Meyers."

"He's Irish not English." Kenyon interrupted.

"Same difference. If you prefer Hugh Grant, then sure."

"Are you saying I remind you of Hugh Grant?" Kenyon questioned.

"Well you do speak like him." Walters answered whilst Lorne and Young nodded at each other. Happy that Young and Walters were looking after Kenyon, Lorne slowly lay down on his side and let sleep take him over.


	12. Chapter 12

"Ok McKay what do you have. Good news would be nice."

"Well I have a rough map of the mines, which at least will narrow down where the entrances are likely to be hidden." McKay answered.

"I'm sensing a but." Sheppard said.

"But there are rather more of them than we thought." McKay responded.

"What do you mean, more than we thought?"

"More tunnels. Look." McKay pointed to the on screen display on the Jumper displaying a network of tunnels.

"That doesn't look so bad." Said Ronon sounding marginally happier than when they left Atlantis.

"That is because it is zoomed out at the moment. There is probably one hundred miles of tunnels down there."

"That is a lot of tunnels. Are you sure?" Sheppard questioned.

"Of course I am sure."

"Can't you narrow it down?"

"If we only consider the tunnels that have an entrance close to where they disappeared, that leaves about sixty miles to search. Sixty miles of no sensors. It could take days to search and that is assuming we even find the entrances. According to these scans we should have walked straight past five of them."

"Could they be cloaked?" Teyla suggested.

"I don't know. May be. But the brief was that these are not a technologically advanced race, where would they have got cloaks from? Unless they are another Genii in the making."

"Well entrances don't just magically appear when the bad guys approach." Sheppard replied.

"You think I don't know that. There is no reason why we shouldn't be able to find the entrances. But not even Conan could find them. It is like they are shifted to another dimension." McKay explained. He suddenly started snapping his fingers. "Maybe if I changed this sensors to look for a trace phase distortion…" McKay began, beginning to get excited.

"Hang on a minute, why would they have phase shifting gadgets but not cloaks?" Sheppard countered.

"I don't know." McKay exclaimed. He then looked briefly at Ronon, who was clenching and unclenching his fists, before admitting, "but I am running out of ideas."

"I get that Rodney, but we need to ensure we are not wasting time chasing the wrong ideas." Sheppard paused. "If we parked a cloaked Jumper outside one of the invisible entrances is there anything you can do to actually locate it?"

"I don't know. Maybe. It all depends what is causing the entrance to be invisible." McKay shrugged.

"Ok then. Can you overlay this tunnel map with surface lifesigns?" McKay nodded and changed the on-screen display.

"This is what we are going to do. McKay will scan for the entrance in a cloaked Jumper." He turned to McKay. "You can also look out for activity of the locals." He looked back at the display. "One team of marines will search this area." He pointed to the on-screen display to an area displaying lots of lifesigns and a possible mine entrance."

"Why there?" Ronon asked.

"Because that is where the locals are searching. It could be a ploy to stop us looking there, as it just happens to be where a hidden entrance might exist. Meanwhile you two, with some more marines, will search here." He now pointed to an area devoid of lifesigns, but again close to a possible entrance.

"In case they are deliberately not searching there?" Asked Teyla.

"Exactly. The rest of the marines will continue their current search and I am going to take our captured friend back to the settlement and ask to go down the mines."

"I should do that." Ronon said.

"Ronon I know you want to find the doc, but you and I both know what will happen if I let you alone with them. I will speak to them first and if I think they are hiding something or if they won't let us down the mines then you can talk with them. Until then start your search."

Instead of verbally replying Ronon stormed out of the Jumper quickly followed by Teyla. "Ronon." She shouted after him. When he eventually came to a halt Teyla approached him.

"I know this is hard for you, but John and Rodney are trying to help."

"Sheppard is slowing the search down by not letting me interrogate the prisoner."

"No Ronon. He is protecting you. What would you do to him? Torture him till he talks then leave him to die? Then what? Attack the people of the settlement? The people of Earth will not tolerate that sort action."

"Wouldn't matter if we found them." Ronon replied.

"What then? You would be thrown of Atlantis. Is that what you want, to never see us again? How would Jennifer feel if she found out you tortured and killed someone?"

"At least she would be safe."

"We will find her." Teyla replied with no hint of doubt in her voice.

"I don't like doing nothing."

"Which is why we are going to search the new area. John will persuade the locals to show us the entrances of the caves, but in the mean time Lorne and the others may be escaping and might emerge in this area. The older entrance my be less well concealed and give us more chance of finding them." Teyla spoke until she could sense Ronon relaxing slightly.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. I am loosing my 24-7 access to the net in 10 days, so at least over the weekend I will try to get 2 chapters out a day, hence the extra one today. Thanks for reading.

* * *

Jennifer awoke from a dream haunted by the lifeless face of the young boy lost hours earlier. As she tried to shake the images from her mind her back screamed out in pain.

"You ok doc?" A voice she placed as Young's asked.

Carefully and slowly she sat up, trying to conceal her pained expression. "Umm yeah."

"You sure? You have been out a while."

"Not used to all this manual labour." She lied. "What is happening?"

"We have been locked in here for six hours, no sign of the guards. According to your friend it is common."

"Friend?"

"Yeah Burt or something."

"Burta. He was here?" Jennifer asked, a defensive look on her face.

Before Young could answer Lorne spoke. "Hey doc, how you doing?"

Jennifer looked down at where Lorne lying and noticed his torn shirt. "Evan! What happened?" She exclaimed as she moved towards him, momentarily forgetting her own health issues. As the pain shot up her back she gasped, which was noticed by both Lorne and Young.

"Easy there doc I am fine." Lorne said as he attempted to sit up. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. Just a pulled muscle of five." Jennifer replied as she attempted to smile. Both men detected the hollowness of it. "Now what happened to you?" She continued as she made her way to Lorne's side.

"Seriously doc I am fine. I just had a difference of opinion with a couple of guards. I don't want to sound harsh, but there is nothing you can do for my back is there? I mean we have nothing else to use as bandages. So you might as well relax."

"What about your ribs?" Jennifer asked as she slowly lifted his shirt. Immediately noticing the bruising she continued. "This is not nothing. I think you may have cracked one or two of them."

"Doc seriously I am fine. You are ruining my macho reputation." Lorne replied flashing a smile, which quickly turned to a grimace.

Ignoring him Jennifer, happy to concentrate on something other than the pain in her back, continued to examine his ribs. "Young, do you still have some of that tape?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good I will need your help." Jennifer proceeded to use the tape to strap up Lorne's ribs, taking care to avoid any of the lash marks on his back. Trying to push her own pain to the back of her mind she finished taping Lorne up and said, "This should stop your ribs moving too much and reduce the pain. But you will still need to take it easy." She then carefully moved away from Lorne and shut her eyes, whilst Lorne and Young exchanged concerned looks.

"You sure you are ok doc?" Lorne asked.

"I'm fine." Jennifer responded, although an edge to her voice was noticeable.

"Ok." Lorne replied not convinced. Deciding to change conversation he said, "how much do you trust that Burta guy?"

Jennifer opened her eyes. "I don't know. Why?"

"He said he knew a way out. So he could be useful for us finding an escape. But I am not sure he is telling the truth. You know him best so I was wondering if you had any feelings one way or the other." Lorne explained.

"He is hiding something." Jennifer said. "But that could be because he doesn't trust me rather than anything sinister."

"In that case Young and I are going to go have a chat with him. You should try to get some more rest." Lorne replied as he tried to stand up. Young moved to his side and offered support.

As Lorne and Young moved to the other side of the cavern in search for Burta, Young asked, "should you be moving around Sir."

"Ribs feel much better now they have been strapped." Lorne grunted in reply.

"And the back?"

"Feels like I have, actually I don't know what it feels like. But my ribs are worse than my back."

"So what is the plan Sir?"

"Well the way I see it we have two options. One, wait and be rescued. Two, escape. If we go for option one I don't know how long we will be waiting for and to be honest I'm not sure how much more Kenyon and the doc can take. But if we go for two we would have to trust a stranger and if we fail we would be killed. Also if we do go for two, we have to do it sooner rather than later as the longer we stay the more beat up we are going to get."

"So we either sit around like damsels in distress hoping not to be crushed in a cave-in or we try a high risk, almost kamikaze, escape?" Young confirmed.

"Sounds about right. I take it you are for option two?"

"Hell yeah. How about you?"

"I am leaning towards two, but lets see what this Burta guy has to say. I don't fancy our chances running blind."

They eventually found Burta sitting by himself in a darkened corner of the cavern. As they approached Burta nodded his head in greeting.

"We were wondering if you had thought about what we discussed earlier." Lorne said.

"Such thoughts can be deadly down here."

"They would be a lot less deadly if we had help." Lorne countered.

"You would need a guide to navigate the tunnels."

"And we would offer safe passage in return."

"When would this be happening?"

"As soon as possible, just waiting for an opportunity."

"Will you be ready in a few hours?" Burta asked.

"Why?"

"If the instability in the tunnels continues, they will have everyone working in the section furthest from the possible collapse. That means you will all be together, but you would need to overpower many more guards." Burta answered so quietly they almost couldn't here him.

"Leave that to us. Will you help?"

"If you free me from the chains I will help. But if you fail before then I will deny all knowledge."

"That sounds fair, but-" Lorne was cut of by a deep rumbling sound emanating from down the tunnels and the cavern shaking. "What the hell?"

"Some of the tunnels have collapsed." Burta explained. "We should be safe here for now. Normally after the cave-in there is a small break, then everyone is moved to the furthest sector to recommence mining. So you might want to prepare your people."

Lorne nodded. "We will talk later." He said as Young and he made their way back to their group.

"You still have that knife?" Lorne asked Young.

"Yes Sir."

"Good." As they walked to the other side of the cavern Lorne explained the escape plan to Young. Having finished he said, "if we make the break, make sure you have that knife ready to use at all times, that guy is definitely hiding something." Young nodded and they continued back towards the others. As they approached they saw Walters and Kenyon lying on the floor presumably asleep, while Jennifer sat with her knees pulled to her chest and her head resting on the knees.

"Um Sir do you think something happened to the doc? I mean earlier before the cave-in. She hasn't been her normal self, she seemed kind of defensive when I said Burta had been hanging around" Young said.

"You think he did something to her?" Lorne asked tensing slightly.

"I'm not sure."

"Ok. I want you to talk Walters and Kenyon through the plan, I will explain it to the doc and see if she will talk about what is bothering her."

Lorne headed straight over to Jennifer and carefully sat down next to her while Young woke the remaining two members of the team and led them off to another part of the cavern.

"How are you doing really?" Lorne asked.

"Fine." Jennifer responded half-heartedly.

"And the truth?" Lorne persevered. "Its just you and me. I need you to be honest with me, if we are going to escape we will need Burta's help so I need to know if he has hurt you in any way."

"What? No. He hasn't done anything to me." Jennifer replied before falling silent for a while weighing up the pros and cons of telling Lorne the truth. Eventually deciding that the truth was not a good idea she went for a half-truth. "I just feel helpless and useless and I really hate manual labour." Jennifer sighed in response.

"So doc how do you feel about getting out of here?" Lorne asked, seemingly satisfied with her answer.

"Sounds good."

"Ok, well we have a plan, of sorts." Lorne started.

"Of sorts?" Jennifer questioned.

"Yeah well it is best to never have concrete plans in this galaxy. Anyway, we are all likely to be moved to the same sector shortly allowing us the best chance of escape. So we need to move quickly."


	14. Chapter 14

"Colonel Sheppard have you found your people?" Chief Eisberg asked as Sheppard re-entered the settlement, flanked by marines.

"No not yet, but we did find him." Sheppard responded pushing the prisoner towards the Chieftain.

"I am afraid I do not understand Colonel, he is a member of this settlement. I was unaware he was lost." The Chieftain said in a state of confusion.

"So you do know him?" Sheppard asked.

"Of course, he is Sartori a great friend of my son."

"Well then we might have a problem. We found him where our people disappeared and he confessed to sending our people down the mines."

"You mean for your doctor to check the health of the miners?" Eisberg asked.

"No to do the mining." Sheppard replied.

"But that is absurd, why would he say that? What reason would there be to do that? Sartori surely you are mistaken." The old leader looked onto the bruised face of Sartori. Sartori looked to the ground refusing to make eye contact with the chieftain.

"Colonel please believe me when I say I knew nothing of this." The Chieftain pleaded, his face one of shock.

"To be honest right now I don't give a damn who knew what. I just want my people back." Sheppard said. "So how about you take me to the mines and let me find my people."

"Of course." Eisberg responded, his face still white with shock, then after a brief pause. He turned to Sartori and asked. "On whose authority did you do this?"

"Annett." Sartori responded, causing the old Chieftain to stumble back.

"Normally I would want answers as well, but I need to get my people out now." Sheppard reminded the Chief.

"Of course. Sartori I order you to take the Colonel to the mine and free his people." The Chieftain spoke.

"There might be a small problem with that." Sheppard said. "According to him, he does not know which mine they were taken to."

The old leader looked down onto Sartori and spoke, with disappointment evident in his voice, "if you do not know who does?"

"I don't know, I was not part of the original discussion."

"Very well take the Colonel and his men to every mine." Eisberg ordered.

"But that would reveal everything to these strangers. We can't trust them with that information." A man spoke up from behind the chieftain.

"And they can not trust us to look after people who were helping us. We must try to make amends. My son and the others have left us with no choice." The old leader looked back to Sheppard. "Colonel I hope one day you will accept I knew nothing of this. For now please excuse me I need to go and." He paused. "I think I need to sit down. Please take my personal guard." He nodded to the man standing by his side. "He will ensure that you are taken to all the mines. Take Sartori as well he will know in the inner routes of the mines." The old man turned away and slowly retreated before turning back saying, "And Sartori when you see my son tell him he is no longer part of this community. The same goes for you." The Chieftain then finally disappeared into a building.

As Sheppard and the marines escorted Sartori and the Chieftain's bodyguard back to the Jumper Sheppard spoke to Sartori. "You had better pray my people are safe, cos if they are not I will give you to Ronon. And if I so much as suspect that you are lying, Ronon will be the least of your worries. Now where should we go first?"

"To the area where your men found me." Sartori answered without taking is eyes of the ground.

When they reached the Jumper Sartori and the Chieftain's bodyguard sat in the back under the watchful eyes of the marines whilst Sheppard radioed Teyla.

"Teyla come in please."

"Go ahead John."

"We are heading back to where McKay is with our prisoner. He is going to show us how to get into the mines. Meet us there."

"We are on our way."

When the Jumper touched down Teyla and Ronon were already waiting with McKay. Sheppard went to the back of the Jumper and opened the door. As soon as they were open Ronon burst through with his gun raised. He went straight for Sartori and placed the gun against his head.

"Easy there Ronon, we need him alive." Sheppard said before looking at Sartori and adding, "for now."

Seeing that Ronon did not move Sheppard glanced at McKay and Teyla. McKay just shrugged, whilst Teyla nodded in encouragement. "Ronon, we are wasting time. He can lead us to our people. The more time we waste in here, the longer it will be before we get them back." Hearing his words Ronon stood back and roughly placed his gun back in the holster. Sheppard signalled to the marines who lead the prisoner out the Jumper, he then approached the Chieftain's bodyguard.

"I can't help but notice you didn't seem to care about his safety there." Sheppard commented.

"I was sent to ensure you found your people. I have no obligations to your prisoner now he has been sent from the settlement." The bodyguard replied before following the marines and Sartori out of the Jumper.

* * *

**A/N:** Again I will try to have a second chapter put up later today.


	15. Chapter 15

A voice sounded round the cavern calling for all personal to prepare to leave. "Ok, everyone stick together as much as possible." Lorne ordered as the group made their way to the entrance of the cavern. When they were being marched through the tunnels Lorne positioned himself next to Jennifer. After a long march they finally reached a mining area, not recognised by either Lorne or his team. As they were being handed dull axes a voice sounded throughout the area. "Due to the cave-in we are behind schedule. Therefore the quota for this session is doubled. You will not be permitted to leave until your quota is met."

Lorne guided Jennifer in the direction of the rest of his team and started clawing away as much as his ribs and back would allow. As he worked he saw how Jennifer and Walters were also struggling. Looking to his left he saw Kenyon working almost feverishly. Edging his way closer to the young soldier he said. "Easy there, you need to save your strength for later."

"But Sir I don't want to be responsible for you being-" He started.

"Enough Kenyon. It won't be an issue cos we won't be here. Besides we don't want to meet our quotas just yet. We need some of the guards to escort the other prisoners out of here first." Kenyon nodded and slowed his pace and Lorne moved back to his original position. After four hours Lorne nodded to Young who left the group, under the pretence of fixing his broken axe, to search out Burta. When he finally returned he gave a small nod to Lorne and then resumed the digging into the wall.

As time went on some of the workers met their quotas. Lorne and Young watched carefully, observing that those who were finished were grouped together until twenty or so were done. They were then escorted away. The guards to led them away never returned. As more prisoners and guards disappeared Lorne began to feel a tinge of optimism and mouthed to Young "Twenty minutes."

After ten minutes another group were led away, leaving just Lorne's team, Burta, approximately fifteen other prisoners and ten guards. The remaining guards were beginning to get restless and the swings on the whips were becoming more frequent, although Lorne's team had so far escaped punishment.

Lorne once again signalled Young telling him to make preparations. Young was about to draw the knife he had received from Jennifer when a guard approached the group.

"Well well." The guard said causing Jennifer to flinch. "I was wondering where you had got to. I seem to remember we had a deal that you would work harder than everyone else or face the consequences. Yet here you are, one of the slowest workers. I had really hoped that you would have learnt your lesson." The guard then reached out and grabbed Jennifer's arm, roughly swinging her round.

The next few moments appeared to pass in slow motion to the young doctor. She was unaware of any signal being passed by Lorne's team, but almost simultaneous they leapt into action. Young grabbed the guard from behind and slit his throat whilst Lorne grabbed the remote control. As the guard fell to the floor Lorne quickly passed the remote to Jennifer, who despite shaking hands tried to remember what to press to release the chains. Her first guess released the chains around all of the prisoner's wrists whilst her second guess released the chains around the ankles. Despite the other prisoners being freed from their chains they all appeared to be too stunned to know what to do, some even continued mining.

Meanwhile Lorne's team closed down the other guards and began to take them out. Fortunately they had the element of surprise and had removed another four from contention before the others realised what was happening. Lorne pushed Jennifer into the wall and told her to remain out of the way. Unable to contribute much to the fights breaking out Lorne scanned the area for Burta and spare candles. By the time his team had dealt with all the guards Lorne had enough candles to last for about six hours. Satisfied he grabbed Jennifer by the hand and tugged her towards the rest of his team.

"We should move quickly. It may not be long before they discover something is wrong." Burta said before grabbing a candle and entering the dark tunnels. Noticing the others not following he looked over his shoulder and saw them look at the other prisoners. "Your best chance is to leave them." With that he hurried out into the tunnels, shortly afterwards Lorne's team followed. When they had finally caught up with him he advised, "stay very close. It will be very dark and there are lots of small shafts leading off the tunnels. One wrong turn and you will be lost."

After scrambling around the dark tunnels for some time Lorne was feeling more relaxed. So far there had been no sign of guards and Burta did seem to know his way around. Eventually Burta came to a stop and turned round. "The next part of the route is steep. You should rest here for a few minutes to gather your strength." With that he moved slightly to one side allowing Lorne's group privacy.

Lorne looked at his men. "Good work back there." He then tugged Jennifer by her hand, which he was still holding, away from his team. Taking the hint his men moved in the opposite direction and looked away. When satisfied they had as much privacy as they were going to get he turned to face her as he released Jennifer's hand. "What the hell was that about?" He asked.

"What?" Jennifer asked wearing an expression of confusion and pain.

"Back there with the guard."

"It was nothing."

"It did not look like nothing."

"It doesn't matter."

"You don't get to decide that." Lorne almost shouted, then lowering his voice again continued. "Out in the field I need to know everything, no matter how small you think it is. I decide if it matters, not you. So what happened?"

"Seeing he is dead does it really matter?"

"Yes." Lorne said getting frustrated. "What happened?"

"He-" Jennifer began, although she was immediately cut-off by a sheepish looking Young.

"Sorry Sir, but Burta says we need to move."

"Ok." Lorne responded. As Young moved off, Lorne grabbed Jennifer's hand once more and said, "We will talk about this later."

The next part of the journey was much more difficult due to the gradient of the tunnels. But despite the hard work required the fact they were heading up meant they were getting closer to fresh air and home and optimism was spreading through the group. That was until they saw the next challenge. Burta stopped at the foot of what had once been a lift shaft. Now the shaft was devoid of any machinery. Instead along one side were rungs ascending the vertical shaft. Young moved to the base of the shaft. He looked up and whistled. "Let me guess, we have to climb up there."

Burta was unable to respond as some of the rocks surrounding them began to shift. Sensing the immediate danger Walters pushed Burta out of the way, causing both of them to land in a heap as rocks fell where they had just been. As the motion subsided Lorne called, "You ok?"

"Yes Sir." Walters called back before he tried to get up. The pain in his back caused him to fall on Burta again, winding the alien in the process. He was about to apologise when he felt something hard attached to Burta's waist. He quickly grabbed at the foreign object, puling it free from Burta's clothes. "What the hell?"

Young and Lorne quickly approached and while Young helped Walters up, Lorne examined the object. "This looks like a transponder." Lorne said.

Burta who was still trying to get air back into his lungs unsteadily stood and said. "It is not what it looks like."

"Really cos this looks like a transponder to me and I am guessing the red light means it is transmitting. You sold us out you son of a bitch." Lorne said as he lunged for the man. Burta quickly avoided Lorne throwing a punch to the Major's already cracked ribs. As Lorne fell back he blocked the direct path between Burta and the rest of his men. Sensing an opportunity Burta then grabbed at Jennifer pulling her back into his chest and placed a previously concealed knife at her throat.

"I thought you were going to help us. We could have freed you." Lorne spluttered whilst holding his ribs.

"No you couldn't. You don't understand. They will be above ground guarding all the exits. As soon as you tried escaping you were dead."

"Why lead us to here then?" Lorne asked.

"I have an understanding with the guards. I tell them about plans or notify them of the position of the escapees. In return I can earn my freedom. There are only two ways out of these mines, making deals or death. You were always going to try to escape and therefore die, so I might as well gain something from your demise."

"You're wrong. Our people will be waiting at the top for us. We will escape." Lorne said. "Now let the doc go."

"No you see I know that if I let her go you will kill me. So I think we should just wait for the guards to come. You were right the transponder is active and they should arrive shortly." Burta said increasing his grip on Jennifer. Lorne looked at the doctor and saw her eyes squeezed shut, her body shaking presumably from fear.

"Now move away." Burta ordered. As he did so he moved the knife away from Jennifer's throat and signalled for Lorne's team to retreat to the far wall.

Feeling that the knife had moved away from her throat Jennifer suddenly and swiftly reached for her concealed knife and jabbed it into Burta's stomach. As he gasped in pain he released his grip on Jennifer, who in turn spun round and landed a punch on his jaw sending him sprawling backwards unconscious. Young quickly brushed past the doctor and checked the fallen Burta for any other weapons.

"Nice one doc." Lorne said as he approached Jennifer who stood standing staring at Burta in shock. "You ok?" As Jennifer nodded in response Young called over.

"No more weapons. What do you want me to do with him?"

"Leave him for the guards. Right now we need to start climbing."

"But Sir he said more guards would be waiting up there." Kenyon said, the edge of fear evident.

"Kenyon our people will be up there. We have a much better chance going up than going back. Young take point, then Kenyon, Walters, the doc. I will bring up the rear." The rest of his team stood looking at him, clearly unsure if he would be able to climb the rungs to freedom. After a couple of moments he said firmly. "Move it."

As his men started the ascent Lorne turned to Jennifer who seemed to still be shaking. "Come on doc not long to go now."

Jennifer positioned herself at the bottom of the rungs and looked up into the darkness at the fading from of Walters. Jennifer took a deep breath and started climbing, doing her best not to look down or think about how far away the ground was.

The team continued to climb in complete darkness, hoping to see a glimpse of light above them. Their limbs ached, every rung causing the lactic acid to run through their muscles. As Lorne struggled with the pain in his ribs and back as well as his legs he paused momentarily and looked down. He then noticed a thin glimmer of light, getting brighter with the passing of time. "Damn." He muttered as he set off again. "We have company. Pick up the speed Young." He shouted to the darkness above him.


	16. Chapter 16

Sartori led Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla and McKay round the rocks near where Lorne's team disappeared. He approached a small boulder and reached out causing Ronon, Sheppard and Teyla to raise their weapons. Cowering slightly he said, "I need to operate the switch to open the mine."

"Ok, but nice and slow." Sheppard said as McKay approached Sartori to see what he was doing.

Sartori slowly reached towards the rock and placed his hand on it causing the top of the rock to change form revealing a control panel.

"That is amazing. Where did you get that technology? Some sort of ancient outpost maybe?" McKay asked as he scanned the rock.

"McKay." Sheppard said with frustration. Oblivious, McKay placed his hand on the rock, but nothing happened. "This isn't ancient otherwise it would work for me. Where did you get this?"

"McKay." Sheppard exclaimed louder.

"Do you know what this means? It means there is another race who is-"

"McKay." Ronon growled, cutting the physicist off.

"Oh right. You just want to get in. You will have to get him to do it." McKay said nodding towards Sartori.

Rolling his eyes Sheppard motioned with his P90 for Sartori to open up the mine. Sartori once again reached over to the rock and pressed a couple of the exposed buttons.

"Wait!" McKay called causing the other three members of the team to close in on the now shaking Sartori; fingers ready to pull the triggers.

"What happened McKay?" Sheppard asked.

"Just give me a minute." McKay answered furiously tapping on his computer screen. Eventually he looked up and said with surprise written all over his face, "they're back."

"Who?" Sheppard asked without taking his eyes of Sartori.

"Lorne's team. They just showed up. Oh no."

"Oh no what?"

"They have company. They are being followed."

"Where McKay?" Sheppard asked.

"A mile from the gate."

Sheppard tapped his earpiece. "All teams, this is Sheppard, Lorne's team has just reappeared," he paused as he read off McKay's screen, "one mile from gate. They have company assumed hostile. Provide cover and escort our people home. Radio once you have made contact."

Turning to Eisberg's bodyguard Sheppard motioned towards Sartori and asked, "If we leave him with you what will happen?"

"Nothing. He is no longer part of the settlement. We will have no further dealings with him. If you wish to punish him by your laws we would not object.

"Good enough for me." Sheppard said, he then nodded to Ronon who stunned Sartori, hoisted him over his shoulder and threw him into the Jumper, followed by the rest of the team. As Teyla tied their prisoner up Sheppard made his way to the front of the Jumper and started the engines.

Three quarters of a mile from the gate Lorne's team was running as quickly as they could away from the mine entrance they had just escaped through. The darkness of night did not help and they blindly ran hoping re-enforcements would be out there somewhere. Struggling with their injuries progress was slow and Lorne was sure he could hear their pursuers making ground on them. Suddenly he tripped on an unseen tree branch and went flying forward taking out Walters and Kenyon in the process. His grunt of pain as he landed on his ribs was hidden by a blast imploding on the tree trunk just in front of their position. "Get down." He shouted at Jennifer and Young as another blast hit a tree. Young threw himself on the doctor, landing on her injured back. Lorne looked around trying to search for cover or anything that might make a good weapon. But the darkness revealed nothing. The blasts became more rapid and Lorne knew it was only a matter of time before they were hit. Suddenly an explosion rocked the area where the weapons fire had being coming from, and then P90 fire sounded. Within a minute silence echoed round their position. They all lay still waiting. They heard footsteps approach and Lorne reached for a branch, which had fallen when a shot hit the tree.

"Major Lorne?" A voice questioned.

"Resnick?" Lorne called back.

"Yes Sir." The voice responded, before a torch beam shone on the five bodies lying on the ground.

Lorne released the branch and moved his hand to cover his face, Resnick immediately lowered the torch. "Good to see you Sir. Are you able to make it to the gate? The nearest Jumper is still five minutes away."

"I'm good, Walters? Young? Kenyon? Doc?" Lorne questioned as Resnick helped him to his feet.

Walters and Kenyon both answered in the affirmative. Young slowly made his way to his feet wincing as he moved his arm looking down at the limb he called, "been shot but just a graze, doesn't look too bad. You ok doc?" He asked as he bent down again to help Jennifer to her feet.

"Yeah." Jennifer responded, her voice quivering badly.

Lorne made his way over to Young and Jennifer. "Can you both make it to the gate?"

They both nodded in response. Lorne strained against the darkness, looking at Jennifer. She met his gaze and nodded again. Satisfied he said, "Lead the way Resnick."

"Yes Sir. But I advise we move quickly. Hostiles are still approaching." As the group began jogging back to the gate Resnick tapped his earpiece. "Colonel Sheppard come in please."

"Tell me you found them." Sheppard's voice sounded.

"Yes Sir. We are heading to the gate on foot."

"Any injuries?"

"Walking wounded as far as I can tell." Resnick answered.

"Ok. As soon as you reach the gate head home. We will meet you back on Atlantis." Sheppard responded.

Lorne's team, flanked by Resnick's men made their way through the darkness to the gate. On arrival a marine ran forward and started dialling whilst the rest of the marines stood guard. As the gate flashed into action Lorne's team covered their eyes, still not use to bright lights. They stood and waited until a marine called, "You are cleared to go through Sir." Lorne nodded and his team proceeded through the event horizon.

As they stepped through to the other side they were all blinded by the sharp bright lights of the control room. As Lorne's eyes began to adjust he saw Woolsey approaching.

"Major. I am glad you are all back safely." Woolsey suddenly stopped, taking in the appearance of the personal. "Would you like me to call a medical crew?" He asked.

"No." Lorne replied. "We have made it this far, a short walk to the infirmary won't be a problem."

"Very well." Woolsey responded, before closing in on Jennifer. "Dr Keller, how about you?" The question caused Lorne and his team to turn round and face the young doctor and took in her bruised and pale face.

"No I'm fine."

"Well if you are sure, go get cleaned up then head down to the infirmary. When you have finished perhaps we could have an informal de-briefing." Lorne's team all responded "Yes Sir." Whilst Jennifer just nodded.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks for reading and reviewing. The Ronifer reunion is next chapter.


	17. Chapter 17

Before Sheppard had parked the Jumper in the Jumper bay Ronon was already standing by the hatch. As soon as it came to a halt Ronon jumped out and headed straight to the infirmary. On arrival he scanned the room for Jennifer. He could not see her, but did see the rest of Lorne's team. He approached Lorne who was sitting on a bed topless revealing blackened ribs and a back that looked mangled, which was being prodded by Carson.

"Where is she?"

"In her quarters having a shower. Should be here any minute. Ow." Lorne explained whilst grimacing.

"Sorry lad. The local will take hold any moment." Carson said calmly to Lorne. "Ronon perhaps you could-"

"He's gone doc." Lorne interrupted as Ronon almost ran out of the infirmary.

"Chatty as always then." Carson commented as he returned his attention to Lorne's back.

When Ronon reached Jennifer's quarters he pressed the door chime, thinking maybe Jennifer wanted some privacy, and waited for a response. When none was forthcoming he tried once more. Again he was met only by silence. Giving up he just opened the door. As he entered the quarters he was surprised to see the room lit with only minimal lighting. Increasing the intensity of the lights he called. "Doc you here?"

Scanning the room he could only see the scattered remains of her off-world clothes, but not the doctor herself. Hearing the water run in the bathroom he decided to wait and began to pick up her clothes from the floor. He first picked up her trousers and tensed as he saw the ripped legs. He bent down again and picked up her shirt, which seemed undamaged. He relaxed slightly and placed the clothes on a nearby chair. He then caught sight of her T-shirt. As he lifted it he saw the tear marks. Holding it up he instantly recognised the cause of the marks. He threw the T-shirt down and went to the bathroom door. He knocked and called. "Jennifer it's me. I'm coming in."

Getting no response he opened the door revealing a sight that wrenched at his heart. Sitting on the floor of the shower was Jennifer. Head resting on her knees, which she clutched to chest using her arms. She shook as sobs racked her body.

"Jennifer." Ronon softly called not wanting to frighten her.

She slowly looked up. Her pale, bruised face partially hidden behind the water droplets falling from the showerhead. She mumbled something as she slowly rocked back and forth, but the noise of the shower drowned her out. Ronon reached to the side and grabbed a towel before moving towards the shower and turning the water off. He placed the towel round Jennifer's shoulders, noticing as he did so the raw red marks covering the majority of her back. Wrapping the towel round her body, he carefully lifted her from the floor of the shower and moved her to the bedroom. Sitting on the bed he cradled the still crying doctor in his lap, trying to sooth her.

"He's dead. My fault. If I hadn't helped he would be alive." She cried.

Ronon gripped her tightly, avoiding her back, confused about who she was talking about. He had seen all of Lorne's team in the infirmary.

"It's over. You are safe." Ronon whispered into her hair.

"But he isn't. Only a child. My fault." Jennifer said between sobs.

"Who?" Ronon asked. "What happened?"

Jennifer suddenly looked up at Ronon and said, "Ronon?" As if she had not noticed him up to this point.

"Yeah it's me." Ronon confirmed, despite being confused and worried. "I think we need to get you to the infirmary."

"No…" Jennifer replied as she shifted in his arms, but the gasp of pain cut off the rest of her comment.

"Yes." Ronon countered. "You need to get dressed." He stated as he shifted Jennifer off his lap and onto the bed. As he stood and went towards her wardrobe he heard Jennifer say.

"Dressed?"

Ronon turned, worried about how unfocused Jennifer was, and saw Jennifer attempt to stand. As soon as her legs straightened they gave out and she fell back to a sitting position on the bed. "Whoa." She exclaimed.

Ronon hurried over. "What's wrong?" He asked grabbing her left hand, concerned with how cold it felt.

"Just dizzy." Jennifer responded whilst staring at some distant spot on the wall.

Ronon considered calling Beckett, but decided it would be quicker taking her to the infirmary himself. "Stay there." He instructed as he swiftly moved back to the other side of the room grabbing some tracksuit bottoms and a baggy shirt. He helped her dress then lifted her into his arms once more, carefully avoiding touching her torn back. As she pressed herself into his chest he moved out of her quarters towards the infirmary, ignoring all the looks being thrown their way by the Atlantis personal.

As he entered the infirmary he called for Beckett, who came hurrying over. Seeing the sight before him he ordered Ronon to place Jennifer on a gurney. As Ronon moved to the gurney he said, "She seems kind of out of it. I think she hit her head maybe. And her back. You need to look at her back."

"Ok son I will." Carson said as he drew a privacy curtain round.

"Ok Jennifer love, lets have a look at you." Carson said in his calming Scottish voice. "I am going to get Marie to come in and help ok?" Carson the turned his attention to Ronon and nodded for him to leave. Ronon just shook his head. Carson stuck his head round the curtains and called Marie over. When Marie entered carrying an infirmary gown Carson spoke to Jennifer once more, also concerned with her lack of focus. "Ok Marie is going to help you whilst I have a quick word with Ronon." Seeing Jennifer nod he left the cubicle, giving Ronon a gentle tug as he left.

"Ok Ronon, I need a bit of time to examine Jennifer, without you standing over me. So I need you to wait out here." Carson explained when they were outside.

"I am not leaving her." Ronon said.

"Ronon. Right now Jennifer needs medical treatment. As soon as I am done you can go in. Until then wait out here." Carson said. Ronon looked down on him glaring.

"Just give me twenty minutes." Carson continued while meeting Ronon's fierce gaze. "I can have you escorted from the infirmary if you prefer."

"Twenty minutes." Ronon said, before turning and leaving the infirmary.

Carson re-entered the cubicle, where Jennifer was now lying on her front, her torn back exposed. "Good god lass, what happened to you?" Carson exclaimed as he pulled on some latex gloves.

"They killed him." Jennifer said, causing Carson and Marie to look at one and other in confusion.

"Killed who?" Carson asked as he inspected her back.

"The boy. My fault. Shouldn't have helped." Jennifer explained incoherently.

"I am sure it was not your fault." Carson said. "Now you are going to feel a wee scratch whilst I numb your back." As he injected the local anaesthetic he said, "Marie, we will need more dressings."

"Yes doctor." Marie responded.

"And Marie, you had better get the camera so Mr Woolsey can have all the evidence for his report." Carson added with a hint of bitterness.

As Marie left Caron turned his attention back to Jennifer. "Won't be long now, till we have you patched up."

Jennifer then grabbed his hand. "Carson, I am glad you are back. I missed you."

Feeling how cold her hand was Carson looked down and noticed that the hand was not only cold, but bruised as well. He then noticed the red marks round her wrists, which he had also seen on Lorne's team.

"What happened to your hand?" He asked.

"Punched someone. It hurt. Never told it hurt so much."

"Well I will fix that up as well." Carson said sadly looking down at the battered body of the CMO.

Five minutes later he left the cubicle to get stronger painkillers for the young doctor. As soon as he emerged from the cubicle Sheppard, Rodney and Teyla approached.

"How is she doc?" Sheppard questioned.

"No life threatening injuries, but plenty of damage. I am a bit worried about her emotional state. She seems to be suffering from acute emotional shock." Carson explained as he moved past them to the locked medicine cabinet.

"Can we see her?" McKay asked.

"Not yet."

"Why? You said it was not life threatening." McKay argued.

"Don't you bloody start. I have just got rid of Ronon. You can see her when I have finished patching her up not before."

"Ronon's not in there?" Sheppard asked surprised.

"No I told him I needed twenty minutes and then he stormed off. Now if you don't mind I need to get back to my patient."

As Carson disappeared behind the curtain Teyla and Sheppard exchanged a glance. "I think I will try to locate Ronon." Teyla then said as she left the infirmary.


	18. Chapter 18

Having stormed out of the infirmary Ronon found himself back at Jennifer's quarters. He entered and sat on the bed trying to calm himself and give in to the relief of knowing she was safely back on Atlantis. As he looked round the room he saw the ripped T-shirt lying on the floor. He moved over to it and picked it up examining it once again. This time as he looked at the torn material, instead of seeing the black of the T-shirt he saw the red, inflamed, bloody marks scarring Jennifer's pale back. He felt a deep primal rage build up again and he roared in frustration, blaming himself for not preventing the pain she had suffered. Remembering the prisoner they had brought back from the planet he left the quarters, still clinging to the T-shirt, and headed to the holding cells.

When he was still a corridor away from the Atlantis prison he was stopped by four armed marines.

"I need to see the prisoner." He growled.

"I can't let that happen. Colonel Sheppard has ordered no one to go past this point." One brave marine spoke up. Sounding more timid he continued. "Colonel Sheppard said you should talk to him if you have any questions."

Ronon paced in front of the marines contemplating his next move as the marines looked on, their eyes clouded with doubt, but weapons raised. Ronon looked down at his hand that was tightly gripping the remains of the T-shirt and realised that fifteen minutes had passed since he left the infirmary. Deciding his revenge could wait he quickly turned and left.

As he headed down the mainly deserted corridors between the prison and the infirmary he nearly walked head first into Lorne.

"Ronon." Lorne greeted, one arm clutched round his ribs. "Why aren't you with the doc?"

Ronon looked at Lorne then back at the T-shirt in his hand. He then drew back his arm and unleashed a hard punch to Lorne's jaw, sending the Major flying backwards. "You were meant to protect her." He roared.

As Lorne tried to regain full control of his senses he said, "I tried."

Ronon held the T-shirt up and unfolded it, turning it so that the back was facing Lorne. "Does this look like you tried?"

"What?" Lorne asked confused about what Ronon was talking about.

Ronon quickly closed the distance between them and picked Lorne up by his shirt and backed him into a wall, causing Lorne to moan in pain.

"Ronon! Stop it." Teyla called from the far end of the corridor as she rushed towards the men.

"Jennifer is hurt because he did not do his job." Ronon growled.

"No Jennifer is hurt because of events which took place on the planet which were beyond Major Lorne's control." Teyla said as she placed her hand on Ronon's right forearm, which was still attached to Lorne's shirt. "Now go back to the infirmary and see Jennifer." Ronon remained glaring at Lorne. "Do you want her to be alone?"

Ronon released his grip on Lorne who crumpled to the floor. He then threw the T-shirt at Lorne and stalked off down the corridor.

Teyla kneeled down next to Lorne. "Major Lorne are you ok?"

"I'll live." Lorne replied as he struggled to get up.

Offering her arm in support Teyla said. "Do you need to go back to the infirmary?"

"I think it might be best to stay clear of there." Lorne answered.

"Ronon will calm down eventually. He will accept you did all you could." Teyla offered.

Lorne ignored Teyla's comment and instead stared at the T-shirt Ronon had thrown at him, paling as he did so.

As Teyla followed his gaze she asked, "What is that?"

"I think it's the doc's shirt." Lorne answered as Teyla bent down and picked up the item of clothing. As Teyla examined it the cause of Ronon's rage became clear.

"I didn't know." Lorne said, more to himself than Teyla. "He was right I didn't try hard enough."

"Major Lorne, I know you well enough to know that you did everything possible to protect Dr Keller from danger. Anything that did happen was beyond your control. Ronon will accept that when he calmed down. For now I think you need to put some ice on your jaw. Come lets get you back to your quarters." Lorne did not respond, but allowed Teyla to lead him back along the corridors.

When Ronon entered the infirmary Beckett was just emerging from the cubicle where he had been treating Jennifer. Ignoring Sheppard and McKay, Ronon headed straight for the Scottish doctor.

"You can go in son, but I had to sedate her so you won't be able to talk to her." Carson explained as Ronon, without breaking stride walked past him into the enclosed area.

As Ronon entered the area he saw Jennifer lying peacefully on her side. The side of her face exposed to the ceiling revealed dark bruises, which seemed even more noticeable against the whiteness of the infirmary gown and sheets. He quietly approached, even though he knew the sedatives meant she would not wake up, and placed a gentle kiss on an unmarked part of her forehead. As he sat down he tried to hold Jennifer's hand but noticed the bandages round her wrists and her right hand. Cursing himself for missing the injuries earlier, when he had been too focussed on her back, he leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "They will pay for what they did."

Outside the cubicle Sheppard rolled his eyes at Ronon's disappearing back before jumping of the spare gurney he was sitting on. "Doc?" He greeted Carson.

"She will be ok. As I just told Ronon she is sedated, if you want to go in you can, but don't stay long."

"Thanks Carson, but I think I will pass. Don't want to upset the big-guy."

"So why are you still here?"

"Woolsey is on his way down to hear your report, he wants me there as well." Sheppard explained.

"Just when was I meant to find the bloody time to write a report?"

"Verbal report. Status update." Sheppard shrugged. "You ok doc?"

"Aye lad, just tired." Carson answered before turning to McKay. "So Rodney what is wrong with you?"

"Rodney is going over some of the readings from the planet and is too engrossed to move. The last time he was so lustful, he was drooling over a Wraith." Sheppard answered for him.

"She was hot." McKay said without looking up from his screen.

"It was a Wraith."

"Didn't look like one. Besides she had all the Ancients fooled."

"I am not going to ask." Carson cut in.

"Dr Beckett." Woolsey's voice approaching them cut off the conversation. "Have you finished treating all the wounded?"

"Yes."

"Good, perhaps you can give me a brief run-down on the situation. Major Lorne gave a brief summary of events, but was somewhat vague on the extent of the injuries."

"Did he indeed? The cheeky bugger said he was going to his quarters to rest." Carson mused.

"I think he wanted to fill us in, whilst letting the rest of his team get some rest." Sheppard answered as he sent a pointed look at Woolsey.

Carson nodded and jerked his head to one side indicating they should follow him to the far side of the room. As he approached the far wall he turned and saw that McKay had joined them as well. "Ok." He began. "None of them have life threatening injuries and they will all make full recoveries. All five of them share some common injuries, namely bruising round the ankles and wrists, presumably from chains. Then they all have their fair share of bruises on the rest of the body and minor lacerations. Major Lorne, Sergeant Walters and Dr Keller also have several lash marks on their backs."

"As in from being whipped?" McKay sounding disgusted.

"Aye Rodney from getting whipped." Carson confirmed as Sheppard muttered, "sons of bitches."

"On top of the that Major Lorne also has two cracked ribs and Liutent Young a graze to his arm from being shot. But it was a clean wound and should heal quickly."

"Prognosis?" Woolsey asked.

"Well as said they will all make a full recovery. Corporal Kenyon should be ready for active duty first in three or four days. Lieutenant Young, probably two weeks. Sergeant Walters, Dr Keller and Major Lorne will have longer recoveries. On the bright side the only two still in the infirmary are Sergeant Walters and Dr Keller."

"Very well. I would like your report with the relevant evidence as soon as possible." Woolsey stated before bidding them farewell with a standard, "Doctors, Colonel."

"What relevant evidence?" Sheppard asked.

"He now wants all injuries from off-world incidents to be photographed and included in the reports, for completeness."

Sheppard threw a disbelieving glance at Carson, then lowered his voice and asked, "does Ronon know about the doc taking a lashing?"

"I would think so, he told me to look at her back."

Sheppard nodded. "Well if you would excuse me I have a prisoner to interrogate."

"Prisoner?" Carson asked.

"Yeah, one of the settlement who was responsible for throwing them down the mines in the first place." McKay answered. "Um Carson, are you ok?" McKay asked, he face a picture of genuine concern.

"No I'm bloody well not. It shouldn't have happened to her Rodney. It should have been me."

"You? What should?" McKay asked confused.

"I should have been on the mission not Jennifer." Seeing McKay look confused he went on. "It was my turn to go off-world, but I had a date of all things in the evening and Jennifer went instead."

"No no you don't." McKay said. "This is not your fault. You can't blame yourself for this. It would be like m blaming myself for Jeannie getting kidnapped. Actually bad example. My point is Jennifer is the CMO now. If she didn't want to go she would have ordered you to go. It was her decision not yours. Don't blame yourself." McKay threw a half smile. "Come on lets go to the canteen?"

"Why? Because a bit of warm food will take away the guilt?" Carson asked.

"No. Because I am starving."


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: **Sorry this is a bit late, but I got stuck driving round wales! Once again thanks for reading and reviewing

* * *

Ronon sat all night in the infirmary clasping Jennifer's hand as if it might fade out of existence if he released it. Despite how tired he was, he would not allow himself sleep as he already felt he had failed Jennifer. He had promised to protect her, but here she was lying in front of him battered and broken. He was snapped from his revere by a small groan. Immediately leaning further forward he squeezed Jennifer's good hand a little tighter. As her eyes began to flutter open and finally focus on him he said, "hey."

"Ronon?" Jennifer replied as she began to look to the space round Ronon, realising that she was in the infirmary. As the pain swept through her body she knew the infirmary was a good place to be, but she had no memory of getting there.

"How did I get here?" She asked, shutting her eyes as she tried to remember.

"I brought you." Ronon answered, succinct as ever, whilst he ran his other hand tenderly through her hair.

"Why?" Jennifer asked just as Carson entered the area.

"You're awake then. How are you feeling?" He asked with a warm smile.

"Ok I think." She replied. "Bit fuzzy on how I ended up here."

"What is the last thing you remember?" He asked.

Jennifer closed her eyes. "Escaping down the tunnels, Evan being upset with me, Burta's betrayal, the climb, being chased and shot at, then nothing." Jennifer reeled off, more to herself than Carson, ignoring the confused look on both Ronon's and Carson's faces. She also missed Ronon tensing when she mentioned Lorne being mad at her. Snapping her eyes open she asked, "how are the others?"

"They will be fine." Carson assured her.

"Why can't she remember last night?" Ronon asked, anger still stirring in his gut, whilst concern swirled in his eyes.

"Well some amnesia is to be expected after a traumatic event. I shouldn't think it is anything to worry about as the head scans came back clear. But to be on the safe side, I am giving a slightly lower than normal dose of painkillers so we can keep monitoring the situation."

"What situation?" Jennifer asked, beginning to worry.

"You were in a bit of a state last night. You were very confused and got quite agitated."

"I don't remember." Jennifer answered.

"You kept going on about a boy and blaming yourself for something." Ronon stated, ignoring Carson's dismayed look.

Jennifer immediately paled, proving there are in fact several shades of white. "Was my fault, he died because of me." She said voice full of self-loathing.

"I am sure that is not the case." Carson quickly responded.

"Yes it is. If I hadn't helped then maybe he would still be alive and I wouldn't have had to have lied."

"Last I checked helping somebody did not equate to killing them." Carson stated firmly, but kindly.

"It did down there. If I had ignored him, they might have let him live. But he was in pain and only a boy and I thought I could help, but they shot him as I told him it would be ok." Jennifer said as tears began to fall from her eyes.

Ronon moved his hand from her head and brushed away her tears with his thumb. "You are not responsible for what they did."

"Yes I am. I was warned what would happen, but I did it anyway." Jennifer said looking up into Ronon's concerned eyes. Feeling he was a fifth wheel Carson quietly left allowing the couple some privacy.

"What happened is not your fault." Ronon replied.

"You can't possibly know that. You don't know what happened."

"So tell me." Ronon said. "What happened? Why do you think you are responsible?"

As Jennifer began to recount what had happened in the mine Ronon, although knowing there was nothing that could have saved the boy, understood that Jennifer would hold herself responsible. Moving his forehead so it nearly touched Jennifer's he said, "there was nothing that would have saved the boy. They saw him as dead weight. As soon as his wrist went his life ended."

"You don't know that. If I hadn't have helped-"

"If you hadn't have helped, you would not have been you."

"Which is why I don't belong in the field. Anyone else would have known better. Everything got screwed up after that wrong decision."

"Any good doctor would have wanted to help. Only a brave one would have helped. They could have killed you for trying to help, but you didn't care. In the end you gave that boy hope and comfort in his last few moments. That is worth more than anything." Ronon said, hoping his words would have some effect. Something then clicked in his mind. "Is that when they lashed you?" He asked.

Jennifer silently nodded.

"Why didn't Lorne stop it?" Ronon asked, unable to mask the anger.

"He wasn't there. We were separated; there was nothing he could do. He tried and got punished for it; I thought they might kill him. Then I was worried what he might do if he found out. I was afraid he would do something reckless so I didn't tell him or the others. When he guessed something had happened he was really mad. I should have told him and trusted him, but I was scared. I didn't want someone else to die because of me." Jennifer rambled. "Another wrong decision."

"You can't second guess every decision you made. You got out alive, that is what matters. You survived, that is your top priority on a mission."

"What about the others? There are so many still trapped down there, including children."

"We will get them out." Ronon promised as he kissed the top of her head.


	20. Chapter 20

Sheppard entered the briefing room with Ronon, whom he had finally prised away from the infirmary. Sheppard was feeling particularly proud of his negotiation skills having argued that Ronon's non-attendance would result in him not going back to the planet.

As they took their seats McKay and Teyla entered, followed by Lorne's team, minus Lorne himself. As Sheppard checked on well being of the military personal Woolsey bustled in and took his seat greeting, "morning everyone."

Just as he opened his folder Lorne finally emerged, sporting a blackened jaw.

"Major Lorne." Woolsey greeted. "What on Earth have you done to yourself since last night?"

"This?" Lorne questioned as he carefully lifted a hand to his jaw. "This I got on the planet." Sheppard looked straight at Ronon.

"I don't recall seeing it last night." Woolsey countered.

"It was during the escape, so it probably hadn't come out when you saw me." Lorne lied.

"Very well." Woolsey replied before looking down at his notes, oblivious to the silent exchange taking place between Teyla and Ronon. Lorne took a seat at the furthest possible point away from Ronon.

The de-briefing started with Lorne's team recounting what events had occurred, stopping every now and then to answer questions which Sheppard or Woolsey would ask. When they had finished Woolsey said. "I am confused about when Dr Keller sustained her injuries."

"I'm not sure Sir." Lorne answered as the rest of his team, unaware of Jennifer's injuries, shared confused looks.

"What do you mean you are not sure?"

"I was not aware that Dr Keller had suffered any significant injuries until last night." Lorne replied. Sheppard again looked at Ronon.

"You were the commanding officer were you not? Surely it is your direct responsibility to know what happens to the people under your command? While I understand that ten lash marks may not be quite as noticeable as a broken leg, surely you must have noticed something?"

"Yes Sir it was my responsibility and I fai-" Lorne began before Ronon cut in.

"He didn't know because Keller didn't tell him." Ronon said to the surprise of the room.

"Excuse me?" Woolsey asked.

"She didn't tell him and kept the marks covered so he wouldn't know." Ronon said.

"And you know this how?"

"She told me."

"Why did she tell you?" Woolsey questioned, a hint of doubt in his voice.

"Guess I am just a good listener." Ronon replied.

"You?"

"Oh yeah, he is like a hamster. You can talk and talk at him and he either sits and listens, eats and listens or runs around in circles and listens." Sheppard said, causing amusement for Lorne's team.

"A hamster?" McKay mouthed, Sheppard responding with a shrug.

"Ok then, why would Dr Keller withhold key information from the commanding officer?" Woolsey continued whilst shaking his head.

"She was a bit vague on that." Ronon replied, while making a mental note to ask someone what a hamster was.

"Very well. Major Lorne you and your team are dismissed and Major I think you should go back to the infirmary to get that jaw looked at." Woolsey stated.

After Lorne's team had left Sheppard asked, "So when do we go back?"

"Back where?" Woolsey asked.

"To the planet."

"Why would we go back? The last trip was not exactly a success. In the end we got all our personal back and the naquadah. What would we gain by going back?"

Sheppard place a restraining hand on Ronon's forearm and said, "we would make sure the people who did this are punished."

"So you are saying it is a revenge mission?" Woolsey asked.

"No. But it is important we show strength and send a message that we won't stand for this type of treatment of our personal. Especially when they are on an aid mission." Sheppard answered not bothering to hide his anger.

"Also, what about the other people in the mines. Surely we have a responsibility to free the prisoners." Teyla intervened.

"A noble sentiment Teyla, but for all we know working the mines is a form of punishment and the workers are legitimate prisoners."

"What about the children?" Ronon asked.

"What children?" Woolsey queried, looking back at his notes.

"The children who are prisoners down there who are killed when they can no longer work." Ronon stated.

"Ronon where exactly have you got this insight of the demographic of the mining personal?" Woolsey asked completely baffled.

"Dr Keller."

"Of course. Anything else you think might be relevant that you would like to share? Like for example, what do you mean killed when they can no longer work?"

Ronon began to recite what Jennifer had told him about what had happened to the child, leaving everyone in the room outraged. After a few moments pause Woolsey leaned forward.

"In principle we have a duty to prevent such a tragedy happening again. However, and correct me if I am wrong, there are hundreds of miles of mines and you found precisely zero entrances. If you go back you are unlikely to find the mines. If you do they would make a perfect trap and we would risk loosing everybody sent on the mission. Also the reason why our people were taken is because this other race is due any time now. For all we know this race could be worse than the Wraith. Do you really want another enemy to fight right now?"

"Or they could be the powerful ally we need." Teyla countered

"I think that is wishful thinking." Woolsey said with a hint of a patronising tone.

"What about the technology we could get by going back?" McKay added. "I mean that cloak was way up there."

"Dr McKay I thought we already have cloaking technology."

"We do, but what was on that planet was much better."

"Better how?"

"Ok. Imagine our cloak is Windows based. It is inefficient and if you know where to look you can find ways round it. Whereas the cloaking technology on the planet was the Linux of cloaking?"

"Linux?" Woolsey asked.

"Yes, admittedly not as user friendly and doesn't have the bells and whistles, but is powerful and hack proof, well compared to Windows anyway. Now it might take some time to get my head round but once I have we could use their technology to make Atlantis safer." McKay finished looking proud of himself.

"Please tell me you are not about to compare Hives to Mac." Sheppard said.

"God no. The Hives are like Dos-Prompt." McKay answered as if Sheppard was a five year old.

"Gentlemen." Woolsey exclaimed. "Ultimately we have a cloak that works and there is no overly pressing need to research another one. Especially when it could come at such a high price. The whole settlement could take up arms against you, assuming the new race didn't first. We have no idea about numbers. You can't seriously expect me to allow a mission based on minimal intelligence where the main objective seems to be revenge."

"Look, according to the prisoner the whole op is run by a few people. Most of the settlement don't know what is really happening, so why don't we talk to the settlement? Try to negotiate the hand over of the people responsible and the release of the prisoners. If that proves fruitless then we use the prisoner to gain access to the mines." Sheppard suggested, noticing Ronon's breathing was getting louder as he tried to control himself.

"When did you talk to the prisoner? I was unaware of authorising such an action." Woolsey asked, eyebrows raised.

"He is a military prisoner, so he fell under my jurisdiction." Sheppard replied.

"Colonel I am still in charge here, of everything. You still report to me. This is not a military establishment. I don-" Woolsey started.

"Look Mr Woolsey." Sheppard interrupted. "On Atlantis we are like a giant family, so when something bad happens to one of us, everyone kinda takes it personally. Especially when it happens to a civilian as likeable as Dr Keller. So you can refuse this mission, and lets say hypotheitically I respected your wish, morale would drop so low you would need a ZPM to raise it off the seabed. Or you can give the green light we go and get the bad guys and stop the mis-treatment of kids, while sending a message that we will not tolerate the kidnapping and enslavement of our personal. We feel better and you get to be the poster boy for the IOA."

"Can you guarantee the mission won't turn into one giant human rights violation?" Woolsey questioned whilst looking at Ronon.

"I can guarantee that we will do our best to rescue way more people than we ensure are punished." Sheppard carefully answered.

Woolsey fell silent again and looked round the room. He looked at again at Ronon who stared right back, persuading Woolsey that the desk in front of him was a better view. Finally he agreed.


	21. Chapter 21

As Sheppard's team were leaving the conference room Sheppard called to Ronon, "My office. No arguments."

Rolling his eyes Ronon obediently followed, despite his desire to return to the infirmary. When they had entered the office Sheppard shut the door behind him.

"Ok I know that you are upset about what happened to the doc but you can not go around attacking members of the expedition. You and I both know how Lorne got that bruising. I will not tolerate you using my men as punch bags. Lorne is a first class officer who would have done everything possible to protect the doc. He has been through a lot and what do you do? You punch him. Don't you think he was injured enough? If you have a problem with someone here you talk to me. You do not attack them, unless I tell you to. Do you understand?"

"I was wrong." Ronon replied, causing Sheppard to loose his chain of thought. "I was angry and it was easy to blame Lorne."

Sheppard was momentarily too stunned to speak following Ronon acceptance of being in the wrong, eventually he managed, "Ok then. But this can't happen again. Do you know what would happen if Woolsey found out?"

"No, what?"

"Well, for starters he could transfer the doc back to Earth." Sheppard responded trying to come up with a suitable threat.

"I will be more careful. Can I go?"

"Yes, but we will need to talk about the doc breaching protocol and withholding important information on a mission. You know I am going to have to discipline her, and I will not appreciate being smacked around."

"I know."

"Ok good. Now go and apologise to Lorne." Sheppard said. As Ronon left the office Teyla entered.

"You were very lenient on him." She commented.

"Well he did admit he was wrong and he never does that." Sheppard said, not looking Teyla in the eye.

"There is something else behind your decision. What is it?"

"Yelling at him won't do much, but the cold shoulder the doc is going to give him when she finds out will be the best deterrent." He smirked.

A knocking on the door prevented further comment. "Come in." Sheppard shouted. The door opened to reveal Lorne. Sheppard nodded him over and Lorne stiffly moved into the room as Sheppard asked, "should you be on your feet?"

"I'm fine." Lorne replied as he grimaced whilst taking the seat next to Teyla.

"I can see that from the way you are gracefully gliding across my office. So what really happened to your jaw?"

"I said-"

"Lorne we both know that what you said to Woolsey was crap."

"It is alright Major, Colonel Sheppard already knows of Ronon's involvement."

"What he did was completely out of line and if you want to take a more formal action than I have taken I will understand." Sheppard said.

"No Sir. He was right." Lorne replied without looking Sheppard in the eye.

"What?"

"I did fail to protect Dr Keller and I failed to spot her injuries."

"From the sound of it your injuries were your pressing concern." Sheppard answered. "And apparently our doctor can be quite devious when she wants to be. I will talk to her about that later. From what I can tell you did everything right down there and I do not want you beating yourself up over this. Do you understand?"

"Yes Sir."

"Good. Well then I need some intel off you for our next mission."

Lorne nodded and described the layout of the mine as best he could as well as the entrance they escaped through. When Sheppard was happy with the information he had been given he dismissed Lorne adding, "Lorne I appreciate you covering for a member of my team in front of Woolsey, but don't lie to me again."

When Lorne had gone Teyla asked, "do you think that he is ok? He did not seem his normal self."

"The problem with Lorne is he is a good officer and as such will feel personally responsible for everything that happened there. Ultimately he just needs time."

"Are you speaking from personal experience?" Teyla asked. Sheppard ignored the question and turned his attention back to the plans of the mines.

Back in the infirmary Ronon was searching for Carson to check on Jennifer's condition. When he finally saw him slouched over a workbench he quickly strode over.

"How is she?"

"The wounds on her back are clean and I don't anticipate there being any problems. For now she is obviously in a fair amount of discomfort. While she is obviously a lot more focused than she was last night, we still need to keep an eye on her, so I have scaled back her pain medication a bit. She is pretty keen to get out of here and I will discharge her under the condition you keep a watchful eye on her and if she has another turn like yesterday, bring her straight back. Any changes from her normal behaviour and I will need to see her."

"Do you know why she acted like she did last night?" Ronon asked.

"There is no physical reason as such that we can find. It was probably acute emotional shock and exhaustion."

"But she'll be ok?"

"Aye son she will. Why don't you go in, she is meant to be eating."

"Thanks doc." Ronon said with a genuine smile.

When Ronon entered the curtained off area he saw Jennifer sitting on the gurney, legs dangling over the side. Instead of eating she was looking down at her left hand, which was holding something just beneath her chin. As Ronon approached he realised that she was staring intently at the necklace he had given her. "You ok?" He asked startling her and causing her to release the pendant, which fell back into position round her neck.

"Yeah." She gave a ghost of a smile and looked up. "Just thinking."

Ronon sat down next to her so their upper arms were touching. "You do too much of that especially when you should be eating."

"This kept me going." Jennifer said as she touched the pendant again, ignoring Ronon's comment. "It reminded me that you would be out there looking for me. I knew that you would find me."

"But I didn't." Ronon replied looking down. "I failed you."

"No you didn't. You would have found me if we hadn't escaped first." Jennifer replied resting her head on Ronon's shoulder. The complete lack of doubt in her voice caused Ronon to smile briefly.

"Right you sure you want to leave?" Carson interrupted as he entered.

"Definitely." Jennifer responded raising her head again.

"Ok. But as soon as you leave I will be powerless and unable to stop Woolsey harassing you." Carson replied.

"Might as well get him over and done with." Jennifer replied as she slid off the edge of the gurney, causing a pained expression as she did so. Ronon immediately stood up and offered support.

"Are you feeling dizzy again lass?" Carson asked.

"No, my legs just really ache. I think I strained some muscles." Jennifer replied before turning her head to Ronon. "Don-" She started, but before she had finished the first word Ronon was already holding her above the ground, cradling her in his arms, skilfully avoiding her upper back.

"Well I can see you will be well taken care of. Remember no strenuous activity and make sure to drink lots to replace all your lost fluids and try to rest." Carson ordered as Ronon carried her towards the exit.

When they were out of the infirmary Jennifer asked, "can we not go to my quarters?"

"Would you prefer mine?"

"No, can be go to one of the balconies on the East pier. I just want to feel some fresh air." Ronon looked down into her pleading eyes and immediately agreed.

When they reached one of the deserted East-pier balconies Ronon set Jennifer down and watched her as she looked out over the ocean. She leaned against the rail and shut her eyes. Enjoying the breeze rustling her hair and the warm sun heating her face.

From her side Ronon finally asked, "so how are you doing really?"

"Still processing." Jennifer replied. "How could they use and discard kids like that?" Jennifer began. "At least the Wraith need to eat, there is some reason. A sick reason but still a reason. But they were just… I don't know. It's just so wrong." She turned towards Ronon, tears welling in her eyes.

Ronon carefully held her upper arms and said, "tomorrow we are going back to the planet and we are going to free the others and make the ones who did this to you pay."

"Promise me you will be careful." Jennifer said.

Ronon just leaned in and gently kissed her.

* * *

**A/N: ** Once again thank you for all the reviews. Bad guy ass-kicking up next chapter!


	22. Chapter 22

As Ronon entered the hanger bay he holstered his gun and asked, "we ready to go?"

"Nearly just waiting for our prisoner, Beckett and McKay."

"I still think you should have let me extract the information." Ronon said with a gruff voice.

"I'm sure you do Chewie, but he was talking without incentive so your skills would not have been needed." Sheppard answered. "Hang on a second. Young." Sheppard called when the Lieutenant entered the hanger. As the junior officer approached, in full combat gear, Sheppard continued. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well Sir I thought I could identify any guilty parties hiding in the village."

"Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't you shot two days ago?"

"It was only a graze Sir. Besides, one of the team should be there, fighting for our honour and all."

"That is the most lame excuse I have heard since McKay getting out of a jog this morning. Has Beckett cleared you?"

"He said he wanted to keep me under observation and seeing he is on the mission I am just making his job easier." Young argued.

"You this much of a pain for Lorne?"

"I try Sir." Young smiled.

"Very well get in, but no fighting, you are coming along for intel purposes only."

"Yes Sir." Young answered as he boarded the Jumper.

As Sheppard turned round he saw a worried looking Carson enter followed by the prisoner whom was accompanied by several marines. He turned his attention to Ronon. "We still need him alive and able to talk. Do not touch him."

As the prisoner was moved past Sheppard and Ronon into the Jumper Ronon growled, causing the man to back into one of his armed guards.

Sheppard shook his head then tapped his earpiece. "McKay come in...What the hell is taking so long?"

"I'm here." McKay said as he came through the doors carrying several bags. Seeing the look Sheppard was giving him he explained. "Look it is so I can do a full analysis to get us into the mines. It is all vitally important."

"Just get on the Jumper." Sheppard said.

As Sheppard followed McKay on board he noticed Ronon had already boarded and was sitting in the back, with a team of the marines, staring menacingly at the prisoner. As he took his seat in the cockpit he asked, "everybody ready?" He then turned and looked at Carson. "Relax doc, you being brought along to treat the prisoners not fight for their freedom. You will spend most of the time away from the action with Rodney."

"Is having Rodney as a protectorate meant to comfort me, worry me or just plain insult me?" Carson replied.

Sheppard just smiled as he radioed the other two Jumpers and then the control room. Having been given the go ahead the Jumpers left the Hanger and went through the gate.

Sheppard ordered the other two Jumper crews to remain outside the settlement, whilst his team and Young went to talk to the Chieftain. As they entered the settlement Sheppard was immediately struck with how quiet it was. He approached a group of children playing by a fountain. "Hey there." He greeted causing the children to turn round.

"Hi." One little boy replied. "Why are you dressed funny?"

"Well we are not from round here." Sheppard replied.

"You shouldn't have left home like that." The boy continued. "My mother never lets me leave until I have brushed my hair."

"Well like I said I am not from round here. Is your mother or any other grown-ups around?" Sheppard said ignoring the stifled laughter coming from Teyla and McKay.

"They are all in there. They are having a meeting." The boy replied pointing to one of the larger buildings of settlement. Thanking the boy Sheppard and his team proceeded to the building. As Sheppard was about to push on the wooden door, he paused and listened. The door and walls were too thick to make out any of the words, but it was clear that there was a heated exchange going on.

"That thing on stun?" Sheppard asked Ronon.

"No." Ronon replied.

"For now put it on stun." Sheppard ordered causing Ronon to roll his eyes, but did as he was asked.

Sheppard then opened the door revealing a large room crammed with people. Some sitting round tables and lots standing round the edges. As Sheppard's team was noticed the room fell silent.

"Colonel Sheppard." Chief Eisberg greeted. "I gather you found your people, are they well?"

"They will recover." Sheppard replied as he carefully took in his surroundings.

"I can not apologise enough for what has happened." Eisberg said. "But if you don't mind me asking what are you dong back here?"

"Well it turns out, it was not just our people who were prisoners down there and we kinda take a dim view of forced labour. So we would like the prisoners to be released and those responsible be held accountable." Sheppard replied, noticing a sea of tension sweep across the room.

"There could be a problem with that." Eisberg guardedly responded. "After your people had left here we rounded up some of those responsible and questioned them. The situation is more complicated than I think you realise."

"I don't know it seems pretty simple to me. You have slaves, including children, working in the mines. That needs to stop. See simple."

"Children?" Eisberg asked as the room started to murmur.

"I guess they didn't tell you that then?" Sheppard said.

"No." Eisberg replied looking downcast. "Nevertheless the situation is more complex than you assume. As you are aware the main buyer for the mineral is another powerful race. They have large demands, but pay well, offering us technology to protect us from the Wraith, such as the devices that hide the mines. However, it appears that my son has become greedy and made bargains, which rewarded him personally. I am afraid that I have not taken an interest in the mines since my son took over and did not see the danger. The more rewards he took, the higher the price became and the higher the consequences for not delivering. On their last visit my son struck a deal to give them four times the normal shipment, in return they gave him vast quantities of explosives, a ship and an implant, which increased his speed and strength as well as his ability to heal. But if he failed to deliver they would take out the whole settlement. He began to use the ship to capture people from other worlds and bring them here to mine. Unfortunately despite this the mine is behind schedule and the other race is due anytime now. Half of the settlement, fearing for their lives, has gone down the mines, some to mine and some to defend against us trying to take control. Those of us left appear torn between doing nothing until this threat has passed or attacking our own people."

"My people will offer you protection if you help us." Sheppard said.

"How can you protect us when your technology is not even good enough to find the mines." A bearded man from the back of the room called. Instigating a chorus of 'ayes'.

"That is a good question." Sheppard started.

"Perhaps it would be best to relocate." Teyla suggested. Immediately the people in the room started shouting and shaking their heads. Sheppard tried and failed to silence them. Eventually Ronon drew his gun and shot the ceiling. Hush descended the room as dust showered down.

"Thank you Ronon." Sheppard said before turning back to the natives. "Look I know you feel like you are stuck between a rock and a hard place, but I think you need to understand we are going to shut down this slavery no matter what. If you would like our help afterwards you need to help us now."

"We understand that Colonel but you are suggesting leaving our home forever." Eisberg said.

"What do you think will happen when this other race comes?" Teyla asked. "Even if you do complete your end of the bargain, do you really think they will let things go back to how they once were? If they need the mineral enough to threaten the whole settlement, what do you think they will do if you stop producing the mineral in such large quantities? At best you all be forced to work the mines as they become your new masters."

"If this other race is due soon, I want to be gone by then, so I don't have time to stand around debating this. We are going to free the people of the mines. Anyone who wants to help feel free. In return we will provide safe passage to another habitable world. If not don't come asking for our help later and don't get in our way." Sheppard said before turning to go.

"Wait. I can lead you to the active mining regions." A man Young recognised as being one of the injured whom Keller had treated spoke up. Within minutes Sheppard was being bombarded with offers and intel.

An hour later Sheppard and team returned to the Jumpers and Sheppard issued orders to each group of marines. He then flew his Jumper to one of the mine entrances. When landed he turned to Ronon and Teyla. "Ok you two and Young are with me. We will take the prisoner with us." He turned to the prisoner. "No tricks or I give you to Ronon." He looked to McKay and Carson. "You two stay here. Rodney you have until we return to learn what you can about the cloaks. Not a minute longer."

Having disembarked the Jumper the prisoner moved to one of the nearby rocks and as on the previous occasion revealed a control panel. He then de-activated the cloak. Seeing Sheppard motion with his P90 he made his way through the cave entrance closely followed by Sheppard's team. Having entered the cave they found themselves surrounded by small doorways, built into the rocks. Piled up to one side were black rucksacks, immediately recognisable as Atlantis issue.

"Looks like this is where you were brought." Sheppard commented to Young.

"There should be a lift shaft at the end of the passage." Young replied and the group carefully made their way forward. At the end of the passage was the shaft that Young had predicted.

"This is too easy." Ronon commented.

"I agree." Sheppard replied as he looked at the cage waiting to go down. He motioned for Young to move the prisoner away from the shaft and out of hearing range then turned to Ronon and Teyla. "Ok then we are going to send the cage down with flash-bang canisters rigged to go when the cage door opens. We will stand on the roof of cage, then jump off with say thirty feet to go and climb down the rungs after the cage."

"How can you be sure they will open the cage door?" Teyla asked.

"We are going to send the prisoner down in the cage." Sheppard explained as he knelt in the cage setting up the flash-bangs. When he had finished he fetched Young and the prisoner. "Ok. We are going to send you down by yourself to negotiate." Sheppard explained.

"Bu…But they will kill me." Sartori stammered.

"If you go down by yourself you should be ok." Sheppard said as he thrust the man into the cage. He then released a lever causing the elevator to drop down the shaft as the prisoner was still protesting. As the top of the cage became level with the ground his team jumped on. Sheppard looked down at the still protesting prisoner. "You know it might help if you are quiet. If they think we are with you they might shoot." The prisoner immediately fell silent. As the cage continued its decent it became engulfed in blackness.

When a thin slither of light became noticeable at the bottom of the pit Sheppard turned on the torch of his P90 and placed earplugs in his ears. The others placed their earplugs in and Young and Teyla turned on their torches. Young then hopped off the top of the cage and onto the rungs. Teyla followed, then Ronon and Sheppard. After a minute of climbing down the rungs from somewhere beneath them shouts erupted then an explosion and a bright flash of light. The team removed the earplugs and speed up their decent.

When they neared the bottom of the shaft they saw the cage and a body lying crumpled on its floor. Sheppard was unsure if that was a result of the stun grenade or from bullets. As they exited the shaft Sheppard checked Sartori for lifesigns, then along with Young and Teyla secured the fifteen or so unconscious bodies littering the tunnel. Sheppard turned to Ronon. "Remember the mine is unstable. No more blasting than totally necessary." He then entered the cage and emptied some water onto Sartori who began to stir. "Told you that you would make it. Now where do we go?"

"Ears ring. What happened?" The prisoner asked, before Ronon hauled him to his feet.

Shaking and unsteady Sartori led them down one of the tunnels. Sheppard was about to question if it was the right tunnel, when gunfire answered for him. The group dived for cover whist firing back, Sheppard shouting to Ronon, "You can set it to kill now." As the cowered behind some old crates Sheppard called to Ronon again. "Still too easy?"

No mood to be slowed down Ronon, recognising that the guns were in untrained and unsteady hands, released several shots with pinpoint accuracy, then he left the cover of the crate and steamed down the tunnel leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.

Sheppard carefully got to his feet, surveying the damage. He looked at Teyla. "Didn't I say no more blasting than necessary?" He asked.

* * *

**A/N:** I am afraid I loose my net access tomorrow until next weekend. So the next update won't be till Saturday, but I will try to write several chapters ready for then. Plenty more bad-guy ass-kicking to come!


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N:** Sorry about the delay. I hope to get another chapter up this evening.

* * *

Sheppard, Teyla, Young and the prisoner hurried after Ronon. Sheppard was not keen on loosing Ronon down these tunnels. When they finally caught sight of the big Sateden he was kneeling down studying something.

"No running off." Sheppard exclaimed as he approached the large man. "What are you doing?"

"There are multiple sets of prints, all leading in different directions." Ronon replied as he stood up. "Probably trying to confuse us. They seem to be expecting us."

"Well there were probably some sympathisers in the village." Sheppard said. "Our priority now is freeing the prisoners." He turned to Sartori. "So which way?"

Sartori remained silent for a second, during which time Ronon invaded his personal space, causing the man answer. "Some of them will be grouped in the rest area. The others will be spread round the different active shafts."

"Ok. We will start with the rest area then. Young when we get there keep an eye out for people who don't belong." Sheppard ordered, before signalling for Sartori to lead the way.

As they traversed the tunnels Sheppard asked Young. "Does any of this look familiar to you?"

"Well the cold, dark, dampness is familiar. Other than that, it was normally pretty dark when I was walking the tunnels I am afraid Sir."

Sheppard's reply was stopped by a deep rumbling sound.

"That is also very familiar." Young said.

As Sheppard rolled his eyes Sartori turned and spoke. "That is a very bad sign. The mine is unstable. I think we should leave now."

"We will leave as soon as we have got everyone out, so I suggest you take us to them as quickly as possible." Sheppard replied.

Sartori quickly scanned the group for a sympathetic face, but instead found Ronon's glare and promptly turned back round and continued leading them through the tunnels, his pace noticeably quicker. The next time he stopped it was to indicate they were approaching the desired location. "There are normally only a few armed guards." He said.

Sheppard slowly approached the bend in the tunnel and peered round spotting a handful of guards. Turning back he said in a low tone, "Shouldn't be a problem. Young stay here and guard him. Ronon, Teyla you are with me." As another rumble propagated through the mine he added, whilst looking at Ronon. "No explosions or unnecessary firing. I mean it this time."

The three of them moved to the bend and took up positions, still thirty metres from the guards. "I have the one on the right." Sheppard whispered.

"The one in the middle." Teyla said.

"The rest." Ronon grunted.

"Ok then on three. One, two, three."

The group opened fire on the guards who were downed before they could return fire. Sheppard's team move forward and reached a locked iron gate. Sheppard began looking for the key on the downed guards. Just a he picked it up, a triumphant look on his face, Ronon blasted the gate, causing it to swing open. Quickly loosing his smile Sheppard said. "That counts as unnecessary blasting." Ronon just shrugged.

The group proceeded into the cavern where they saw lots of figures hugging the walls, looking scared and confused.

"Hi." Sheppard greeted. He was met by thick silence. "We have come to take you out of here and back to your homes. So if you would like to follow us we will be topside in no time." Although a few of the prisoners moved closer, there was not the surge Sheppard expected. Confused he looked to Teyla.

"Maybe we should remove the chains." Teyla suggested whilst looking equally baffled.

"There is a button on the remotes the guards have." Young said, waving a remote he picked off one of the fallen guards.

"Which button?" Sheppard asked.

"Don't know Sir. The doc operated it." Young shrugged. "The wrong one will send a shock."

Sheppard looked at Sartori, who carefully took the remote and pressed some buttons. Immediately the cavern was resonating with the sound of the chains being dropped to the floor.

Teyla looked back to the prisoners and smiled. "See we mean you no harm. Now please follow us."

A couple of the prisoners moved slowly towards Teyla.

"Teyla take them out and get them to the surface. Get the marines to escort them to the gate if they are healthy. Get Carson to look at the not so healthy. We will organise things down here."

Teyla looked at Sheppard; surprised she was being sent back to the surface.

"They seem to trust you, so it makes sense you lead them out of here." Sheppard said.

Still doubting Sheppard's motives Teyla reluctantly turned and motioned for the prisoners to follow her, back down the tunnel. As the procession of released prisoners grew in size Sheppard turned to Young.

"Anyone look like they are not who they seem?" He asked.

"No not ye….Hang on."

"What?" Ronon growled.

"Over there, he is the son." Young replied as he made eye contact with a man five feet away from him leaving the cavern. The man seemed to recognise Young and pushed others out of the way before charging down one of the other tunnels at an impressive speed, quickly followed by Ronon.

"You are in charge here. I am going after Ronon." Sheppard ordered, before sprinting down the tunnel.

The tunnel was too dark, even with his P90 torch, for Sheppard to see the two figures he was following, so instead he relied on his hearing. A task made easier by the sound of Ronon's gun discharging. "Just ignore the no blasting rule then." Sheppard muttered as he continued his pursuit. Just then another rumble reverberated through the mine. This time the whole tunnel shook and rocks began to fall. Sheppard threw himself to one side of the tunnel and waited for the shaking to stop. When the tunnel was quiet again he peered down the dark passage, his visibility further reduced by the dust particles floating around. He continued moving forward straining to see or hear any sign of Ronon. It was then that he realised Ronon's gun was silent.


	24. Chapter 24

"Ronon!" Sheppard shouted down the tunnel. The word echoed but there was no sign from Ronon himself. Sheppard picked up his speed and headed further into the dark tunnel until he came across some fallen rocks, partially locking his path. He slowed just as his foot kicked something on the ground. The object in question slid across the stone surface. Sheppard aimed the light from his P90 at the origin of the sound and saw Ronon's gun. As he bent down and picked it up he muttered, "damn."

He adjusted his P90 so the light was shining on the fallen rocks, looking for any sign of Ronon. Relieved that there were no limbs protruding from the rocks Sheppard carefully climbed over the fallen debris and crawled through a small gap. Eventually he emerged on the other side of the fallen material and the tunnel opened up once more. He took a moment to scan as much as he could see with the small amount of light his P90 threw out. It was then that heard what sounded like a grunt, followed by another and another. "Ronon?" he called, but got no reply.

He continued to move forward towards the source of the noise. As he moved closer to the source he became certain that there were two distinct grunts coming from the area in front of him. He then saw a shadowy movement coming from dead ahead. He raised his P90 ready to fire if the shadow turned out to be hostile. He continued to approach illuminating the area directly in front of him until the shadow appeared to be shaped like Ronon's dreadlocks flying through the air. The grunts were louder and more frequent, but Sheppard could still not see any solid images. Finally the light from his P90 reflected off a figure in front of him and he saw a fist fly through the air and make contact with a face. He moved further forward and managed to make out Ronon's figure fighting the man who ran earlier. To his surprise Ronon was, whilst not loosing, definitely not winning. The light was too bad and the speed of the fight to quick for Sheppard to feel comfortable firing. Instead he neared the fight ready to fire if a clear shot became available. As he approached the men the light from his P90 revealed what a close fight it was. Both men had dark liquid smeared on their faces, which seemed to glimmer with sweat.

As another fist flew through the air, Sheppard saw Ronon's head seem to fly back. With Ronon temporarily out of the way Sheppard took aim. However, before he could squeeze the trigger Ronon had unleashed a punch of his own and sent his opponent flying back. There was a sickening crack as the head of the Chieftain's son hit the wall of the tunnel. Panting, Ronon approached the figure, which had slumped to the floor. Sheppard, keeping his P90 trained on the fallen man, also approached. "You ok there buddy?"

"Yeah." Ronon replied, wiping some blood off his face.

"You know maybe you need to spend less time with the doc and more time in the gym." Sheppard said handing Ronon back his gun. Ronon just glared.

Sheppard began to kneel down to check for a pulse when the slumped body began to jerk. Both men pointed their guns at the body, which was now convulsing.

"You hear that?" Ronon asked as a faint 'tink tink' noise sounded.

"Yes." Sheppard replied. I think it is coming fro… Oh crap. Run!" Sheppard exclaimed.

Both he and Ronon turned and sprinted down the tunnel when suddenly an explosion sounded from behind them, causing the tunnel to shake and rocks to fall.

"What the hell?" Young questioned as the area round him violently shook covering him in dust.

"I told you the area was unsafe. That was a cave-in." Sartori spoke, sounding more confident in the absence of Ronon. "We should leave now."

"Your whining is beginning to annoy me." Young replied as he scanned the area for any other prisoners. Confident that sleeping area was clear he moved back to the iron gate and helped the stragglers back towards the lift shaft, continually looking over his shoulder for signs of Sheppard and Ronon. His attention was so focused on the tunnels behind that he did not notice Teyla approach.

"Lieutenant Young." Teyla greeted.

"Teyla?" Young questioned. "I thought you had gone up top."

"I did, but the marines have taken charge up there so I came back to speed matters up down here. Where are Colonel Sheppard and Ronon?"

As Young explained what had happened Teyla's concern grew.

"Where would he have run to?" Teyla asked Sartori.

"I don't know. There are many places to hide in these mines."

Teyla looked at him with a penetrating stare before saying, "very well. We will ensure the prisoners all get out, then you can come with us and help us find them."

"But, it is unstable.." Sartori started.

"Let me assure you that I have methods of extracting information, which make Ronon's look humane. Do you understand?" Teyla said as the mine shook again. Sartori just nodded. Turning her attention back to Young, Teyla said, "we should hurry."

The increasing frequency of the shakes rattling through the mine encouraged the remaining prisoners to seek their freedom quicker than before so that they reached the lift shaft quite quickly and helped the prisoners into the cage. When the last group had been secured into the cage Teyla motioned for Sartori to lead them back to the area where Sheppard and Ronon disappeared. Reluctantly he started back down the tunnel when a huge vibration shook the area round them. A distant roar of rocks falling came from the area straight ahead. However, the roar was getting louder and closer.

Knowing there was nothing more that she could do Teyla said, "We must go now." And the three of them climbed the rungs leading up the lift shaft. They had only climbed for twenty minutes when a cloud of dust, dislodged by the tunnel collapse, flew up the shaft.

When the air had cleared and the vibrations had ceased, Teyla made her way back down the rungs. As she reached the base of the lift shaft she surveyed the area. Where had once been a tunnel were rocks piled to the ceiling.


	25. Chapter 25

Lorne was standing on one of the remote balconies of Atlantis staring out over the blue ocean when he heard some footsteps approach.

"Evan." Jennifer said as she reached the balcony.

"Doc." Lorne responded keeping his bruised left jaw facing away from the young doctor, who hung back at the entrance of the balcony.

Eventually Jennifer took a few tentative steps forward and stood to the right of Lorne.

"I wanted to apologise." She started. "I should have told you what happened."

"Yes you should. In the field I need to know everything. Bad intel leads to things going wrong." Evan glanced sideways and noticed Jennifer staring down at her feet. "What gets me was, even if you forgot all the training we had given you over sharing information with the commanding officer, I thought you would have told me as a friend."

"That's why I didn't tell you." Jennifer replied still staring at her feet.

"What?"

"After what happened I did not want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt. I thought if I told you, either you would do something stupid and get yourself killed or you would hold yourself responsible. I didn't want that, so I kept quiet. It was wrong and I am sorry. I will never do something so irresponsible again." Jennifer paused and looked at Evan. "I hope someday you can forgive me." She turned and began heading back to the corridor, finally saying, "I would hate to loose you as a friend."

"Doc wait." Evan called without turning. "I…you won't loose me as a friend. We are still friends."

"Evan, you can't even look me in the eye." Jennifer replied turning back to face the Major.

"Well I don't know if you knew this but I have a couple of cracked ribs, they kind of make turning difficult." Lorne joked,

"Well seeing you brought it up shouldn't you be the infirmary?" Jennifer questioned, closing the distance again.

"Shouldn't you?" Lorne countered.

"I have been banned from working."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know." Jennifer replied. "Anyway I will leave you to." She paused. "Whatever it is you are doing all the way out here."

"Just admiring the view, the real light and the fresh air."

"Ok then." Jennifer then planted a soft kiss on Lorne's cheek.

Surprised Lorne began to turn towards her. "What was that for?"

"Just wanted to thank you for looking after me and what the hell happened to your jaw?"

Lorne quickly snapped his head back to facing the ocean. "Nothing. It is just another bruise from the mines."

"No it's not. You didn't have that bruise when we got back and you weren't punched there during the escape so you must have got it after returning." Jennifer started reeling off her thoughts. "You wouldn't be stupid enough to spar so it must have been from… Ronon? Ronon hit you?" Jennifer worked out, anger beginning to show in her voice.

"No." Lorne began, once again looking at Jennifer. Seeing her stare he realised lying was pointless. "Well yes, but I don't think he meant it."

"How can you not mean a punch?"

"Well I think it was more he was angry and frustrated and I got in his way."

"I can't believe he would do that. Why would he… I told him it wasn't your fault."

"Well I think he knows that now. He kind of apologised."

"How can you kind of apologise?"

"It's Ronon we are talking about, he is not exactly Mr Articulate."

Jennifer nodded. "But why? What good did it do hitting you? Who does he think I am? Does he really think I wanted him to hit you or was it that.. I can't I mean…. What was he…. Does he really think that I can't…. I will kill him or at least stop….I am so sorry…"

"Slow down doc." Lorne interrupted her rant. "He had been without sleep for a long, long time. He came back to find you beaten and bruised and your back torn to shreds. He felt guilty cos he couldn't protect you. Then he saw me who had the job of protecting you walking round the city whilst you were lying in the infirmary and he momentarily lost it."

"Why are you defending him? He could have broken your jaw."

"I was kind of expecting it doc. I mean whenever I go a mission with you I know I am a dead man walking if something happens to you."

"He is threatening you as well?"

"No. Doc he loves you and is protective of you."

"So that gives him justification for beating up my friends. I can take care of myself I don't need protecting." Seeing Lorne raise an eyebrow she quickly revised her statement. "Ok well maybe sometimes. But he shouldn't beat up whoever has been assigned to look after me. I am sorry. After everything you did for me and after I didn't…I am so sorry."

"It's ok doc."

"No it's not. But he won't do this again I promise."

Lorne began to laugh softly.

"What?"

"How exactly are you going to stop Ronon protecting you short of beating him to a pulp first. Now that I would love to see."

"Some of us don't need to resort to violence."

"I am not gong to ask." Lorne smirked causing Jennifer to blush.

"That is not what I meant."

"Of course doc. Whatever you say."

"Major Lorne, Dr Keller." Woolsey interrupted as he walked out onto the balcony.

"Mr Woolsey. You are a long way from the comfort of the control room." Lorne greeted.

"Any news on the rescue mission?" Jennifer asked.

Woolsey looked at both of them. "Yes. That is why I am here. They found and evacuated what is believed to be the majority of the prisoners. But." He paused.

"What happened?" Lorne immediately asked, concern etched in his voice.

"Lieutenant Young identified the chieftain's son. The one who was responsible for what happened to you."

"We remember." Lorne cut in his voice full of frustration.

"Yes of course. Anyway he in turn recognised Lieutenant Young and made a break for it down one of the tunnels in the mine. Colonel Sheppard and Ronon gave chase, whilst Young and Teyla evacuated the prisoners. During the evacuation a series of vibrations were felt in the mine, gradually increasing in strength. Anyway having evacuated the final prisoners Teyla and Young were about to start a search for Colonel Sheppard and Ronon. However, it appears a stronger vibration then rocked the tunnels and they were forced to climb the shaft. After the vibrations stopped they went back down and the whole tunnel had collapsed."

"What about Colonel Sheppard and Ronon?" Lorne asked.

"We don't know. As you know sensors don't work down there. There is no radio communication, but we don't know why."

"You think they are dead?" Jennifer asked.

"We don't know. We have no idea how much of the tunnel collapsed. Nor do we know where they were when the collapse happened." Woolsey solemnly said. "They could be safe on the other side of the mine." He added in a more upbeat tone. "After all if anyone is likely to survive a cave-in it is Ronon."

"Excuse me please." Jennifer said leaving the balcony.

"Doc wait." Lorne called after her as he followed.

"Major Lorne there is more." Woolsey said causing Lorne to stop in his tracks.

"I did not want to say this in front of Dr Keller." Lorne turned and looked at Woolsey. "I lied about not knowing the extent of the cave-in. Dr McKay is fairly sure, using some modification to the Jumper sensor, that the tunnel collapse extends close to a mile. If they were in that stretch, there is zero probability of survival. However close to where the collapse started the tunnel split into four branches. Two of those branches suffered only minor damage."

"You think they were close to the start of the collapse?" Lorne asked as he digested the information.

"It is possible. The combat engineers believe that such a massive collapse must have been started by a powerful explosion. Whilst I am confident neither Sheppard or Ronon would set-off explosive devices in a mine, the person they were chasing I am not sure about. I am also confident Ronon would not stop his pursuit of the man he holds responsible for Dr Keller's injuries." Seeing Lorne's questioning look he added. "I know you do not have the highest opinion of me, but I am not blind to what goes on here." He paused. "As I was saying I believe it is likely that Ronon and Sheppard were in close proximity to the most likely cause of the explosion. So there is a chance that if they were not killed by the blast they could be in one of the other tunnels."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"I know you are meant to be resting, but as the senior military officer on base, if you could co-ordinate and organise the rescue teams we are sending out it would help."

"It's done." Lorne said as he headed for the control tower followed by Woolsey.

**A/N: **Once again thanks for the reviews. I will try to get another chapter up tonight.


	26. Chapter 26

On the surface a long way above the dark tunnels of the mines McKay was carefully scanning the readouts he had of the mines while Teyla stood behind him.

"I work better when people are not hovering over me."

"I thought you worked best when facing imminent death." Young answered, also looking restless. McKay turned and glowered at the Lieutenant.

"Look this is not easy. I want to find them as much as you do, but there is not an easy way of extracting the information on the tunnels. It looks like a rabbit warren down there. If we go for the wrong path we will not find them."

"I thought you said you had narrowed it down to four tunnels, only two of which survived the collapse?" Teyla said.

"I did. But the tunnels don't lead directly to the surface, they kind of wind around until they reach a lift shaft. Unfortunately they aren't on a level plane and because they cross over in one dimension it gets a bit fuzzy on the scans."

"So you are saying it is like doing one of those maze games we did as kids?" Young asked.

"Maze games?" McKay asked.

"Yeah, you start off at the edge of a maze and you draw a path to the centre, not crossing any of the black lines. You can start off at any part of the edge, but there is only one correct route." Young explained. McKay just looked at him blankly.

"My point is if we choose the wrong entrance we will be searching the wrong area for days." McKay said.

"If we don't choose a route they could die down there." Teyla reminded him.

"I know. I just want to be sure we are directing the search to roughly the right area."

"Rodney." Teyla began.

"Fine we should focus on these five entrances." McKay said as he pointed to the screen in front of him.

"Finally." Young muttered. "I will organise the marines and the combat engineers." He finished as he headed out of the Jumper.

"Are you ready?" Teyla asked McKay.

"Ready?"

"To go Rodney." Teyla said.

"I thought I was staying up here trying to improve the scanners."

"Rodney you said the radiation from the rocks meant you could do nothing more for the sensors nor the radios. You have done all you can up here. But your skills will make you indispensable down the mine." Teyla said.

"Indispensable?" McKay asked sounding slightly happier.

"Yes Rodney."

"Well of course, when I am down there I might be able to take into account the half-life a bit better and possibly get some shielding going so I can use the scanner." Rodney said.

"Good. We will go down in a couple of minutes." Teyla said rolling her eyes.

Ten minutes later Teyla, Young, McKay and a team of combat engineers stood at the top of disused lift shaft. McKay peered down the very dark hole.

"You want me to go down there?" McKay questioned. "To climb down god knows how far using rusty rungs. Do you know how unsafe that is?" The combat engineers shook their heads and started the decent.

"Rodney did you not once tell me that you and John had a thing where you would save each others lives? Putting your own lives in danger in the process."

"Yes."

"Well now is one of those times." Teyla said before moving onto the rungs.

"Ok." McKay said more to himself than anyone else. "I can do this. Just don't look down. I will think about pi, then e, then derive the TOV equation. I can do this." He moved over to the rungs and gingerly placed a foot on one of them as his hands formed a death-like grip on some higher ones. "I can do this. Three point one four one five nine, ohh that's a long way down….two six five…"

When McKay finally reached the bottom of the shaft everyone else was standing around waiting. "Made it." He said causing the engineers to shake their heads.

"Well done Rodney." Teyla tried to encourage. "Which way should we go?"

"Oh um. Just give me a minute." He said as he took the laptop out of his bag. After a few minutes typing he said. "That way." And pointed down a dark passage. As the group headed off Young hung back and turned to McKay.

"You know that they say don't look down?" He started.

"Yes." McKay answered.

"The advice is wrong. It should be don't look up." He then looked up the shaft that extended so high no light from the outside world penetrated it. "Coming down is easy, but going up.." Young faded off as he followed the others than the tunnel.

Rodney stared upwards. "Sheppard owes me big for this." He muttered before joining the others.


	27. Chapter 27

"Sheppard." Ronon called shaking some debris off his body.

"Yeah." Sheppard groaned between coughs.

"You ok?"

"Well I am here in one piece. As for ok." He stopped as he coughed, moving his P90 round to illuminate the area. "No. I would say annoyed, yes, angry, yes, but ok, no. How about you?"

"I'm fine." Ronon replied as he moved over to Sheppard.

"Really? I mean you took quite a beating then a tunnel collapsed on you. I wouldn't think any less of you if you weren't ok."

"I'm fine." Ronon repeated as he helped Sheppard up.

"Well good." Sheppard coughed again. "What the hell happened?"

"Tunnel collapsed after the explosion."

"Thank you. Very helpful. What I meant was what exactly exploded?"

"No idea. The beeping seemed to be coming from," Ronon stopped as he coughed.

"The guy who kicked your ass?" Sheppard finished for him as he scanned the area looking for an exit.

"I took him down."

"Eventually." Sheppard said. Noticing in the dimly lit area Ronon's glare, he continued. "Were you just playing with him, enjoying prolonging the fight or was he doing as well as he looked?"

"I never play around in a fight." Ronon said. "I have never fought someone like him."

"You think it was that implant they mentioned in the settlement."

"Not my area." Ronon replied.

"No I guess not. I just thought all that time you spend with the doc might have increased your scientific potential." Sheppard said as he bent down and picked up a smallish stone.

"Hasn't worked for you with McKay."

"I'm not dating McKay." Sheppard answered. "Anyway my theory is that the chip he had put in his head that gave him increased speed and strength, but self-destructed when you knocked him out."

"Seems like a flaw to me." Ronon said. "Why would he accept a chip that blows his head off?"

"I don't know, maybe he didn't realise that is what the chip did. Or maybe he wasn't the son. Maybe he was replaced by some evil robot, which was programmed to self-destruct on capture."

"We didn't capture it. And it bled like a human. Your chip idea is better." Ronon responded.

"Maybe he was so good at fighting because he had his limbs replaced like the bionic woman." Sheppard continued.

"Bionic what?" Ronon questioned.

"Bionic woman, classic TV show about a woman who had these implants put in her that gave her increased powers. Great show and she was hot."

"I was wrong." Ronon said.

"Wrong about what?" Sheppard asked.

"You do sound like McKay."

"Was that a joke?" Sheppard questioned as he scraped the stone on the tunnel wall.

"What are doing?" Ronon asked, looking back at Sheppard.

"Marking our path, in case rescue comes from behind."

"So do we have a plan?"

"Find the exit." Sheppard shrugged.

"Sounds good." Ronon responded as he started walking down the tunnel. "This way."

The two walked down the tunnel carefully avoiding any of the fallen rock. Every five metres, Sheppard marked the tunnel wall 'SGA1' and placed an arrow pointing in their direction. Occasionally they passed some side tunnels, which Ronon walked straight past. Eventually Sheppard asked.

"How do you know this is the right way and we shouldn't be going off one of the side passages?"

"I don't."

"Oh good. I feel much better."

"But it is slanting up so we are heading towards the surface." Ronon added.

"You do know we are too far down to just blast our way through to the surface when we run out of tunnel?" Sheppard asked, receiving no answer from Ronon. Just then another vibration rumbled through the tunnel.

The two men exchanged a glance then started running down the tunnel.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry the last two chapters were so short. The next one will be longer, but won't be up till next Saturday.


	28. Chapter 28

"That does not sound good." McKay commented as the tunnel shook.

"You think?" Young muttered.

"I still can't pick anything up on the sensors." McKay said, ignoring the comment. "Perhaps we should wait a while until the shaking stops. No point us all getting trapped."

"No need Doctor." A combat engineer said. "These tunnels are fine."

"You sure? Cos they look pretty flimsy to me." McKay questioned.

"Are you sure you know how a Nuke works?" The engineer responded.

"Of course that is child's play."

"Well then. To me this is child's play. When I say it is safe it is safe." The engineer answered before continuing down the tunnel.

"Great I am having to trust my life to some arrogant Lego builder." McKay muttered.

"Now you know how we normally feel on a mission with you." Young said. McKay just glared.

"The sooner we find them the sooner we can leave the mine Rodney." Teyla tried to soothe.

"Fine. Lets go. Hopefully this program I am running will adjust the calibration, then I might be able to see something soon. That is if we are not crushed to death first." McKay said as continued walking down the tunnel trying to ignore the vibrations.

After ten minutes the leading group stopped.

"Ok Doctor you are up." One combat engineer called back.

"What do you mean up?" McKay answered.

"We are at a crossroads you need to choose which direction to take."

McKay walked forward into a small cavern, from which led several tunnels. He looked down at his tablet and began pressing the screen.

"Anytime." Young said.

"I can't rush this. It is an extremely complex task. If I get it wrong we could be wondering this tunnels for days." McKay responded indignantly as another rumble propagated through the mine. "Ok ok." McKay muttered. "That way." He said pointing to one of the tunnels.

"You sure?" Young asked.

"Yes, well fairly. It is a one in three."

"One in three? I thought you had mapped these tunnels."

"I have but the resolution isn't perfect, especially when one level crosses another. If you think you can do any better feel free." McKay said defensively.

"No no, you are the expert. You want to go that way we will go that way." Young replied as the cavern shook again.

"Very well shall we go?" Teyla said, sounding frustrated. The group walked towards the tunnel McKay had pointed to when a voice from behind stopped them in their tracks.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"John!" Teyla exclaimed. "It is good to see you."

"Good to be seen. But where were you going?"

"To find you Sir." Young answered.

"Down there?" Sheppard questioned pointing to the tunnel the group had started down.

"Dr McKay thought that was the right tunnel." Young shrugged.

"How many times do I have to tell you all, do not let Canadians navigate?" Sheppard answered.

"Hey I said it was a one in three chance." McKay answered. "It is not my fault I can't get sensor readings down here."

"Told you not to rely on gadgets." Ronon said as another vibration shook the area.

"Perhaps we should discuss this later after we have got out." Teyla suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Sheppard said. "I have already been in one cave-in today and I would prefer not to be in another."

"It's alright these tunnels are safe." McKay said causing Sheppard to raise an eyebrow.

"Actually doctor this area is not safe." One of the combat engineers said.

"What? You said they were fine."

"They were a quarter of a mile back. But here not so much."

"Why didn't you tell me? Would that not constitute useful information?" McKay practically shouted.

"McKay calm down. I am sure you would have carried on looking for us regardless." Sheppard said. "Wouldn't you?"

"Well, I guess so."

"You guess so?" Sheppard questioned.

"So you knowing would not have helped, only caused you increase worry." Teyla finished, the ground shaking again.

"Yeah so now we have found you, shall we go?" Sheppard said. "I assume someone here knows the way out."

"Yes Sir that way." Young said pointing to a tunnel that Ronon was already heading for.

As the group headed down the tunnel, Sheppard fell into step along side McKay and Teyla. "What happened to you down there?" Teyla asked.

"Well long story short Ronon got his ass kicked, then he-"

"I thought you were just pursuing one individual?" Teyla questioned.

"Oh we were. He still got his butt kicked."

"I still won." Ronon said very gruffly, having fallen back to walk with the rest of his team.

"Only after nearly loosing." Sheppard said, making sure Teyla was standing between himself and Ronon. "Anyway Ronon got off a luc… a great punch and sent the guy flying, then he sort of exploded-"

"Who Ronon?" McKay asked.

"No McKay. Does Ronon look like he exploded?"

"I thought you were talking in a metaphorical sense." McKay defended.

"I meant literal."

"Why? People don't just explode." McKay said.

"I know that, but he did. I think that it was the chip he was given."

"Chip? What chip?" McKay asked confused.

"The Chieftain said his son had been given a chip that enhanced his speed and strength." Sheppard explained.

"And you believed him?" McKay asked incredulously.

"Well he did kick Ronon's butt." Sheppard explained.

"How many times are you going to say that?" Ronon asked in a deep growl.

"Sorry buddy, it is just that it is unusual to see someone get the better of you." Seeing Teyla raise an eyebrow he quickly added, "Present company excluded. Anyway, it just helps remind me you are human."

"What else would I be?" Ronon asked confused.

"It's just an expression." Sheppard said.

"Can we get back to the super-power chip?" McKay asked. "Are you sure he did not set off a charge?"

"Or could there have been an old charge in the tunnel wall that exploded." Teyla suggested.

"I think it was the chip." Sheppard said.

"Well did you bring it back?" McKay asked.

"No McKay. For some reason as I was digging my way out of a cave-in it did not occur to me to head deeper into the collapsed area and rummage around for human remains so I could locate an exploded chip."

"So you have no way to verify that he had some sort of chip that gave him super-human powers and then for some reason exploded." McKay said doubtfully.

"Other than the fact he kick-" Hearing Ronon growl Sheppard paused and then said, "He was a very good fighter and he exploded. What more could you want?"

"Actual hard core proof." McKay answered. "You think Woolsey is going to go for the whole exploding chip story? Why has everyone stopped?"

"Because we are at the shaft." Young called back.

"Already?" McKay asked, not sounding as enthusiastic as Sheppard had expected.

"What's wrong McKay, I thought you wanted to be on the surface?" Sheppard said.

"I do, I had just kind of hoped that we would have had given the others more time to get us out another way. Perhaps we could rest first."

"No need." Ronon said as he started his ascent.

"You will be fine Rodney." Teyla assure him.

"Perhaps I should eat something first. In case I run out of sugar half-way up and collapse and plunge to my death." McKay suggested.

"Or perhaps you should stop talking so you don't burn up energy unnecessarily." Sheppard said smirking.

"That and breathing." Young muttered as he started climbing.

"See what I have had to put up with from your uneducated people." McKay said to Sheppard.

"He has a degree from Penn State." Sheppard replied.

"Probably in a pointless subject that doesn't count like History."

"English actually."

"Ha. I rest my case. Uneducated." McKay said proudly.

"So you climbing?" Sheppard asked. "And that wasn't really a question."

"Fine, I am going. But if I fall to my death, it is all your fault and you can explain why to Jeanie." McKay said as he carefully started his climb, whilst Sheppard and Teyla exchanged an amused glance. As he disappeared upwards still muttering Sheppard turned to Teyla.

"After you."

"Surely you want to be out of here sooner than me?" Teyla responded.

"But I am a gentleman and as such must allow the lady to go first." Sheppard said, then as Teyla positioned herself on the bottom rung he added, "Besides I don't want to see McKay's butt."

"But you wish to see mine?" Teyla questioned.

"What? No that is not what I meant." Sheppard replied before realising Teyla had already climbed five metres.


	29. Chapter 29

"Oh god I want to die." Rodney wheezed as his threw himself to the ground at the top of the lift shaft.

"It could be arranged." Ronon replied standing over him, just as Teyla emerged.

"No…no I think that is taken care of….already." Rodney continued between noisy intakes of breath.

"McKay why are you lying down there?" Sheppard asked as he climbed out of the shaft.

"Legs gone to jelly…..Can't breathe."

"Well that does it, no more snacking and you can join Ronon and me on runs." Sheppard responded.

"Not my fault my body is not designed to do this." Rodney replied still gasping for breath.

"So whose fault is it? The cook?" Sheppard smirked.

"My body has evolved to maximise my intelligence not my muscles." He defended, just as Ronon placed a hand on his tac vest and hauled him to his feet.

"Come on." He growled.

Rodney opened his mouth to speak and was about to say something when he looked at Ronon and decided against it. He snapped he mouth shut, and then sagged slightly as Ronon released him and walked off.

"Why is he so crabby?" Rodney asked.

"It's Ronon." Sheppard shrugged as he walked past McKay towards the exit.

When they finally reached the Jumper they saw Carson treating a couple of teenagers. On hearing their approach Carson looked up.

"Colonel. Good to see you. You had me worried for a bit. You and Ronon should go to the Jumper I will be in to see you in a bit." Sheppard nodded and signalled for Ronon to go to the Jumper with him, as Carson turned to one of the marines. After a brief discussion Carson followed them to the Jumper.

"How is the evacuation going?" Sheppard asked.

"Most of the freed prisoners have returned to their home-worlds. The two out there don't know the gate address; so will join about twenty others and the people from the settlement on the Alpha site. Apparently their people did not use the gate. In terms of injuries a lot have injuries similar to what our people came back with, but more worryingly a lot are displaying signs of lung problems. I have taken samples and run scans and I suggest we visit them on their home-worlds to offer further treatment." Carson summarised. "So what about you two?"

"We're fine." Ronon said.

"Well I think I will be the judge of that." Carson said. "And you look far from fine."

Carson ran a hand-held scanner over the man, then examined his face and ordered him to lift up his shirt. Ronon glared back unmoving.

"Listen lad I might not be able to sweet talk you the way Jennifer does, but I still expect you to do what I say. Now lift up your shirt."

Ronon and Carson locked gazes, both unmoving. Eventually Ronon lifted his shirt revealing a very bruised torso.

"What the hell happened? What did you do? Go twelve rounds with Benny Lynch?"

"Who?" Ronon asked looking at Sheppard.

"Beats me." Sheppard shrugged.

"Famous Scottish boxer." Carson said shaking his head. "Ok then I want you back on Atlantis ASAP to get your ribs looked at. I think you will need a couple of stitches as well. Colonel, you should get checked out as well. In fact any one who went down the mine I want checked out so I can monitor the health of their lungs."

"You expecting problems?" Sheppard asked, looking slightly concerned.

"Hopefully not. It is likely the problems the others are experiencing are caused by long-term exposure, but it is best to be careful.

"Ok I will organise everyone. We will leave the teams who haven't gone down to help evacuate the settlement." Sheppard said leaving the jumper to issue orders to the marines. When he returned McKay was in the Jumper interrogating Carson.

"Could it be a symptom? I mean you can't rule it out can you? And I think I have a cough." Rodney spluttered on cue.

"Relax Rodney I am sure you are fine, but I will do a full barrage of tests when we get back. For now just try to relax."

"How can I relax when I could have some sort of fatal lung disease?"

"I never said it was fatal." Carson sighed.

"Rodney we are going." Sheppard interrupted as he headed to the cockpit.

"Good. That's good. We need to get back as soon as possible, before it is too late."

"If you want I could stun you." Ronon suggested.

"How exactly would that help?" Rodney questioned.

"Well it would slow down your metabolic rate and hence slow the progression of anything that might be wrong." Carson answered on Ronon's behalf.

"Actually I was just thinking it would give the rest of us a peaceful ride home." Ronon shrugged.

"Oh very funny. Mock a dying man." Rodney replied.

"Rodney is it not John, Ronon and Lieutenant Young who have had the most exposure and therefore the most likely to be at risk?" Teyla asked. "And they are not displaying any symptoms."

"Well yes, but bad things always happen to me." Rodney responded.

"Yeah he talked himself into an illness during the quarantine." Sheppard quipped.

"Not what I meant. It was me who nearly got ascended, me who had a parasite in my brain, me who-"

"McKay I nearly turned into a bug." Sheppard responded as the Jumper took-off. "Bad things happen to all of us. But I am sure you will be fine."

As they approached the gate, Sheppard dialled and sent through his IDC.

"Colonel Sheppard this is Atlantis." Woolsey's voice sounded in the Jumper. "Is everyone ok?"

"Mr Woolsey." Sheppard's voice sounded round the control room. "We all got out ok. Carson wants anyone who was down the mine to report to the infirmary for tests, including Lorne's team and Keller."

"Understood. I will meet you in the infirmary on your return." Woolsey signed off.

Cutting the signal Sheppard said, "can't wait." He then flew the Jumper through the gate.

When his team and the other personal that had been down the mines reached the infirmary Carson issued orders to take blood samples and scans from each off them, whilst he treated Ronon.

When he was done he emerged from the curtained area and saw Jennifer talking to Lorne, Sheppard and Teyla. He approached the group.

"How is he?" Sheppard questioned.

"He'll be fine. His ribs are just bruised. Other than that he needed four stitches in the head wound. He should be back to his normal self in no time." Carson started before turning to Jennifer. "He was asking to see you."

"Thanks Carson." Jennifer replied before disappearing round the curtain.

"Ronon." Jennifer greeted as she saw him, relief washing over her face. Ronon who was already standing smiled and then embraced her awkwardly, he trying to avoid her back, she his ribs. "I was so worried about you." Jennifer said, tears welling in her eyes.

"I'm fine." Ronon said.

"You sure?" Jennifer asked, pulling back.

"Yeah."

"Good." Jennifer said before her expression changed suddenly to anger, surprising Ronon. "Then you can tell me why you felt the need to hit Evan. I don't want you to go and beat up people on my behalf, especially my friends. What possessed you to do it? Do you really think I want that? I thought you knew me and understood me, obviously I was wrong." Not giving Ronon a chance to respond she stormed out of the cubicle and the infirmary causing Sheppard, Teyla and Carson to exchange confused glances.

"She kind of put two and two together." Lorne explained.

"Ahhh." Sheppard said as Teyla nodded. Carson still stood looked confused.

"Would someone please tell me what is going on?" Carson asked.

"Long story. Maybe I should go talk to him."

"I think I will leave before he blames me for this." Lorne said.

"I will talk to Jennifer." Teyla volunteered.

Sheppard nodded and then walked towards Ronon's curtained area. As he entered he saw Ronon standing looking confused, annoyed and something that Sheppard could not place.

"Buddy." Sheppard greeted. "I take it the doc was not happy about you thumping Lorne."

Ronon just made a sound that was a cross between a growl and a grunt.

"Sorry was that a 'yes you are right and I need help' grunt or a 'leave me alone' grunt?" Sheppard questioned.

Ronon grunted.

"Yeah thought so. You will need help on this one. I mean she looked really pissed. She is definitely not the type of girl who appreciates violence. You have major grovelling to do."

Ronon grunted again.

"Well the first thing is for the doc to witness you apologising to Lorne."

Another grunt.

"Well then it gets more tricky. I mean you know her better than anyone."

Another grunt, but with more growl.

"Hey you got yourself into this mess not me. But it might be that she needs time, I mean she has been through a lot. Also she is a woman so it could be hormonal, but don't tell Teyla I said that, nor the doc for that matter. Seriously though I think you just need to talk to her."

Ronon grunted again and left.

"You're welcome." Sheppard called after him.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks again for the reviews. Sorry it has only been two chapters this weekend. I have spent the week suffering from Word rage and it has stiffled my creativity slightly!


	30. Chapter 30

"So Dr Beckett what is the current status of the freed prisoners?" Woolsey asked, as Beckett and Sheppard's team sat in the conference room.

"They should all make a full recovery, although I am still concerned about the long term effects on their lungs." Beckett explained. "I won't know more until I have performed more tests and done follow-ups."

"Very well. And our people?"

"None of them are showing any signs, but I will keep them all under observation for a bit longer. The ones most at risk are Major Lorne's team, especially Lieutenant Young, Dr Keller, Colonel Sheppard and Ronon. Everyone else had minimal exposure." Beckett finished looking at McKay.

"Thank you doctor." Woolsey said writing down some notes before turning his attention to Sheppard. "Colonel I am a bit unclear on your report." Sheppard sat up a bit in his chair. "You seem to be implying that the son of the leader had some sort of chip that gave him almost super-human powers and then exploded."

"Yes." Sheppard replied.

"Do you actually have evidence for this?"

"Well the settlement told us he had a chip that was meant to increase his speed and strength and I am sure Ronon will tell you he was a more than worthy adversary. He did not seem to fight like a normal person." Sheppard explained.

"Ronon?" Woolsey questioned.

The group turned to Ronon who sat staring at the wall.

"Ronon?" Woolsey attempted again, with still no response, he looked at Sheppard. Taking the hint, Sheppard picked up an elastic band and catapulted it towards Ronon, smacking him on his forehead.

Startled from his revere, Ronon jumped up ready to strike at his opponent, only to realise he was in the briefing room.

"Something wrong?" Sheppard asked, struggling to maintain a straight face.

"No." Ronon replied sitting down again avoiding eye contact with the rest of the room.

"So Ronon." Woolsey began, "Do you concur with Colonel Sheppard's assessment of the Chieftain's son?"

"Yeah." Ronon replied.

Woolsey continued looking at him, waiting for an in depth answer. Taking the hint Ronon added, "I do."

"Well thank you Ronon for your concise summary." Woolsey replied shaking his head. "Dr Beckett is there anything that you have encountered that would back up the Colonel's theory?"

"Well it will be hard to say for certain without seeing the chip, but it could be as simple as increasing hormone release."

"And the self-destruct?"

"Well I can't say I have seen something like that in anyone recently, but it is not unheard of, although normally in soldiers. A modern cyanide capsule as it were." Beckett explained.

"Supposing your theory is correct Colonel, what would you intend to do?" Woolsey asked.

"Well this other race could prove a very useful ally, but if they are employing self-destruct chips, they might not be the right type of ally. Until we know more I would be reluctant to give them any intel on us so I think we should keep a cloaked Jumper on the planet and wait for their return."

"Very well. I will leave the team selection to your discretion." Woolsey jotted a couple more notes down then said, "Thank you everyone." And stood up, followed by everyone except Ronon who had phased out again. As Woolsey, Beckett and McKay left, Teyla and Sheppard exchanged glances and closed the distance on Ronon.

"Hey buddy, you ok?" Sheppard said.

Ronon looked at him, but remained silent.

"The doc still not talking to you then?" Ronon again stared back without speaking.

"Are you this vocal with her? Cos if you are it could explain a lot." John quipped smirking, before a glare from Teyla wiped the smile from his face.

"Have you tried speaking with her?" Teyla asked.

"Thought it was best to give her some space." Ronon replied. "And I wanted to see Lorne first."

"Have you seen him yet?" Sheppard asked.

"No, couldn't find him."

"I believe he is in his quarters resting. You should try there." Teyla said.

"Then what?"

"You apologise."

"I meant after that."

"Talk to the doc."

"What if she doesn't want to?"

"I believe that Jennifer is much," Teyla paused, "calmer today."

"If not you could always live up to McKay's impression of you and sling her over your shoulder and take her away somewhere." Sheppard joked.

"I do not believe that suggestion is helpful." Teyla chastised.

"I was just giving him options." Sheppard defended as Ronon stood up and left. "I was joking." Sheppard called after him.

* * *

**A/N:**Sorry it was so short, but it is something before the weekend!


	31. Chapter 31

Ronon stood outside Lorne's quarters unsure on how to proceed. He knew that he should not have hit Lorne, but he had defended him in front of Woolsey, surely that counted as an apology. Acknowledging that it was one word he had to say he rang the buzzer. After a few moments Lorne answered. On seeing Ronon on the other side of the door Lorne looked somewhat worried and backed away.

"Ronon, hi." He began somewhat nervously.

"Lorne." Ronon said, without entering his quarters.

"I did not tell the doc. She guessed when she saw my face." Lorne said quickly.

Ronon looked on, surprised that Lorne felt the need to share that information, and then putting the pieces together said, "I am not here to hit you." Lorne seemed to relax a bit. "I'm sorry for hitting you."

"I know." Lorne replied, and then waited for Ronon to get to the point of his visit. As Ronon stood in the doorway making no effort to move or speak Lorne realised that the apology was the purpose, he could not help but break out into a smile.

Ronon tensed and asked, "what?" in a gruff voice.

"Sorry, I just realised why you were here. The doc still angry with you then?"

"Yeah." Ronon replied not finding the situation in anyway amusing.

"If you want I can talk to her, say you gave me a grovelling apology, the type that brings a tear to the eye."

Ronon glared at him, quickly removing the smirk on Lorne's face, before eventually saying, "do you think it will help?"

"Don't know." Lorne answered, desperately finding the urge to laugh.

Ronon stared at the Major a moment longer, before saying, "Bye," then he turned and left for Jennifer's quarters.

Lorne called after him. "I enjoyed the visit."

When Ronon reached Jennifer's door he was concerned to see Beckett leave. "Something wrong?" He asked, startling the Scottish doctor.

"No lad, I was just changing her dressings. Although, if you could persuade her to sleep, or at the very least rest, it would do her the world of good."

"How did she seem?" Ronon asked, trying to gauge Jennifer's mood.

"Fine all thing considered." Beckett replied.

"um, emotional?"

"No." Beckett answered, oblivious to what Ronon was asking. "Anyway I will leave you to it." Beckett smiled before heading off down the corridor.

Ronon stood outside Jennifer's door and drew in a deep breath before pressing the chime. Within seconds the door opened to reveal Jennifer.

"Ronon." She greeted cautiously.

"Doc." Ronon returned.

The two stood in an awkward silence in the doorway before Ronon said, "if you are busy I can go."

"No, I'm not busy. Do you want to come in?"

Ronon allowed a big grin to spread across his face as he entered the quarters. When the door had shut behind him he started to speak. "So I apologised to Lorne."

Jennifer looked at him surprised. "Did you apologise because that is what you thought I wanted you to do? Or did you do it because you know hitting him was wrong? I mean if it hadn't been for me would you have done it? In fact if it wasn't for me would you have hit him at all? And did the apology even mean anything or will you deck the next person I go on a mission with?" Jennifer said very quickly. So fast in fact Ronon could not keep up and his smile was replaced by dumbfoundment.

"I did not understand a word of that. You been spending time with McKay?" Ronon asked.

Jennifer allowed herself a small smile. "I was trying to ask why you apologised to him? Did you apologise, as you thought that might make me forgive you and you still don't understand why I was mad at you? Or was it because you accept you can't beat my friends up?" Jennifer looked up and saw Ronon smile. "Why are you smiling?"

"You said 'was mad', past tense. So you are no longer mad." Ronon explained causing Jennifer to roll her eyes. "But I apologised cos I shouldn't have hit him."

"That's good." Jennifer started, "but I should apologise as well. I shouldn't have just stormed out of the infirmary. Especially after you nearly died trying to save those people for me. I'm sorry."

Ronon smiled and drew Jennifer in for a hug, which she gladly returned asking. "How are you feeling?" Pulling back she tried to lift up his shirt, with her non-broken hand, to examine his ribs. "The ribs ok?"

"I'm fine." Playfully squatting her hand away. "But you should be resting, so unless there is a non-medical reason why you are trying to take my shirt off, the shirt stays on."

"I don't need to rest. I have rested plenty."

"Not what Carson says." Ronon stated.

"When did you speak to Carson?"

"Just now, he was leaving your quarters." Ronon shrugged. "So bed."

"He said rest not bed-rest." Jennifer replied defiantly.

"Actually he said sleep."

"Not tired." Jennifer retorted, causing Ronon to look at her with a raised eyebrow. Returning his gaze she added, "if I sleep now I won't sleep tonight."

"Ok." Ronon gave in. "Food and movie?" He asked.

"Sounds good." Jennifer replied. "But don't think I am watching Alien."

Ronon gave a deep but short laugh before directing her towards the canteen.


	32. Chapter 32

"Colonel Sheppard." Woolsey greeted, looking up from his desk.

"Woolsey." Sheppard nodded, "you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, please take a seat." Woolsey smiled carefully placing his pen on the desk. "I thought you would like to here the latest on the refugee situation."

Sheppard sat down and waited for Woolsey to continue.

"All apart from five of the former prisoners have been reunited with their people. Two unfortunately will never be reunited as their planets were destroyed by the Wraith shortly after they were taken. The others we are still searching for their homes, but without knowing the gate address, it is a long process."

"At least they will have a good home with Teyla's people in the mean time." Shepard responded.

"Yes. The Athosians are a very generous people." Woolsey paused. "According to Dr Beckett, although many of those he treated have scarring to their lungs, he is optimistic of a nearly full recovery with regular checks and medical aid. Although, our resources will be stretched as we try to check up on them regularly."

"Will the IOA agree to that?" Sheppard asked.

"For now."

"In the future?"

"In the future we may have to be a bit more creative with our reports, but I give you my word, I will not turn my back on them." Seeing a slightly sceptical look on Sheppard's face he said ruefully, "I have clearly not earned your trust yet."

"Oh no, it's not that. While you are in charge I believe you will do all that you can, but how long will you be in charge for?"

"I have no intention of leaving Colonel, or are you insinuating that you are planning a coup?" He tried to joke.

"No, nothing like that. It is just that we kind of go through leaders quite quickly out here and I know you have the IOA's backing right now, but we both know that can change."

"Colonel, let me assure you that the IOA want one of their own out here, but no one wants to leave the comfort of their warm, safe, Earth offices. While they believe I am still theirs, there will be no problem."

"And are you? Still theirs I mean."

"Yes and no. Since coming here I have learnt that the IOA procedures, might not be the most suitable in this galaxy and that occasionally I might need to think outside the box as it were. But at the same time I am still a strong believer in oversight."

"Good enough for me." Sheppard responded, before quickly changing the subject. "How about our people?"

"All recovering on schedule and for a change following medical instructions about rest."

"Really?" Sheppard asked.

"Yes. I have not had one complaint from the infirmary the last few days. I do believe that even Dr Keller has stayed away for three days." Woolsey confirmed, causing Sheppard to smirk. "Something amusing Colonel?"

"No."

"Very well then, do you want to stay while I check in with the Jumper team?"

"Yeah, I'd better see how much more of each other's company they can stand, before cabin fever sets in."

Once the men were in the control room Sheppard said, "Chuck dial the mine planet."

"Mine planet?" Woolsey asked as Chuck started to dial.

"Well it has mines and everyone knows which one I am talking about. Whereas if I just reeled off the formal designation, everyone would be confused and there could be a mistake of mishearing a number so-"

"I get the point Colonel." Woolsey interrupted. "Just make sure you use the correct designation in the report.

Sheppard nodded as the gate flashed into life. "Captain Moore, this is Sheppard come in." Sheppard waited for a response, which was not forthcoming. "Captain Moore come in." As he was meant once again by silence he exchanged a worried glance with Woolsey. "Moore, Duffins, Dover, Sanchez, come in." When he was once again met by silence Woolsey turned to Chuck.

"Run a diagnostic and make sure the fault is not at our end." Chuck turned his attention back to the screen in front of him and started typing.

"All systems operating normally Sir." Chuck eventually confirmed as Sheppard once again tried to reach the Jumper crew.

"Chuck, change to the emergency frequency." Sheppard ordered.

"Ready to transmit." Chuck replied after a few taps on the keyboard.

"Moore, Duffins, Dover, Sanchez, come in." Sheppard tried once more, resulting again in silence. "Ok shut it down." Sheppard ordered. "Do we still have those UAVs that the Daedalus brought last time?" He asked Woolsey.

"I believe so." Woolsey confirmed.

"Ok then, I recommend dialling every hour and trying to establish radio contact. If we have still heard nothing in four hours we send the UAV through."

"Why wait four hours?" Woolsey questioned.

"It is solar powered and it is still dark on the planet."

"Of course. Very well make preparations." Woolsey ordered.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks again for the feedback. More on the aliens next chapter.


	33. Chapter 33

When the four hours had passed Sheppard's team stood in the control room with Woolsey and Zelenka. McKay and Zelenka made some final adjustments to the UAV before McKay turned to face everyone else.

"Ok we have fitted a basic lifesigns detector and a video camera. Whilst the gate remains active it will beam back everything in real-time. Once the gate shuts off it will keep flying recording data. When a signal is re-established it will beam everything back to us."

"Who exactly will fly it when the gate is shut off?" Woolsey questioned.

"I have programmed…" McKay started, but was interrupted by Zelenka coughing. "Fine. We have programmed it to keep making passes over he village. It will automatically sense cloud cover and air currents and will adjust its height automatically." McKay finished.

"What about enemy fire?" Sheppard asked.

"One hit will probably down it." McKay answered.

"Anything on it that can be linked back to us?" Sheppard continued.

"No. It's clean."

"You sure?"

"Of course I'm sure." McKay answered affronted.

"How long can it stay airborne?" Woolsey asked.

"In theory two days." Zelenka answered.

"But that was under a completely different set of conditions." McKay countered. "Without one of us actually updating its navigational log every fifteen minutes and assuming we want it to stay over the target area as long as possible, it is more likely to be just twelve hours."

"Well that should be long enough." Sheppard said. "How about you send it through?"

"You just need to dial the gate then 'Gate Jet 1' is ready to go."

"'Gate Jet 1'?" Sheppard questioned.

"Yeah."

"It's not a jet."

"It is close enough. Look you named the Jumpers and all the Wraith we have met, so I name this."

"You named F.R.A.N." Sheppard argued.

"Gentlemen." Woolsey interrupted, "perhaps we could start. Chuck dial the gate." Looking suitably abashed, Sheppard and McKay followed Woolsey, Teyla and Ronon up the stairs of the control tower, whilst Zelenka started the motor on the UAV. McKay took a seat at one of the consoles and started typing.

"Ok, we are receiving telemetry. As soon as you are ready I will send the command to launch." McKay said.

"Go ahead." Woolsey confirmed.

McKay hit a couple more buttons and the UAV was propelled of the launch platform through the gate.

"Cool." Sheppard exclaimed.

"I will display the images on the plasma screens in the conference room, they should be coming through any second, although it will take about fifteen minutes for it to reach the area our Jumper was parked." McKay explained.

"So we just wait?" Ronon asked already sounding bored.

"Yes we just wait." Sheppard responded.

"Or maybe not…." McKay started, before trailing off as he furiously typed.

"You want to finish that thought?" Sheppard probed.

"This isn't right…." McKay said, ignoring the others.

"Are you sure the sensors were calibrated properly?" Zelenka asked, also staring at McKay's screen.

"Of course I am. I am not an amateur." McKay snapped.

"But that would mean that-" Zelenka began.

"I know."

"Would you like to fill us in?" Woolsey asked.

"Mmm. Oh yeah." McKay said standing. "Shall we?" He pointed to the conference room.

When everyone had taken their seats McKay pointed to a coloured area at the top of the screen, which was slowly extending downwards. "The UAV came pre-fitted with a simple IR sensor, which is showing this."

"A growing blob?" Sheppard questioned, still unsure what the fuss was about.

McKay rolled his eyes. "This blob indicates a heat source."

"So?"

"The top of the screen represents the maximum range of the sensors. So it is about five miles from the UAV. We calibrated the sensors to pick up localised thermal emissions from our people. So while they are sensitive over 100 metres, they should not pick anything up at five miles, unless it was a huge heat source."

"So you have picked up a large heat source? But if I am reading the map correctly that is roughly the direction of the village. Some of the locals stayed so could it not be camp fires?" Sheppard asked.

"By huge, I do not mean camp fire. Think towering inferno and you are more like it."

"Towering what?" Teyla asked.

"It's a film." Ronon responded to the surprise of the room.

"Oh." Teyla replied still none the wiser.

"Could the members of the settlement who were made outcasts, or those who chose to remain just have burnt the whole village?" Woolsey asked.

"Setting light to a few huts would not generate this amount of thermal energy. The village is still a few miles away, so if the heat source is the village then napalming the village would not have generated this much energy."

"So what would?" Sheppard questioned.

"Either there is a random fire on the edge of the sensor range, like a forest fire, in which case the cameras will have visual in a few moments. But seeing how it was not really a forested area, that seems unlikely. The other possibility is the village is destroyed, but seeing how the village is several miles further on, for the fire to generate this much heat it would have had to have been bombed with some impressive weaponry."

"Nuclear?" Woolsey asked concerned.

"No, I don't think so." McKay answered, "if it were nuclear the em radiation should be interfering with the sensors. But they are all working normally."

"So you are saying that you believe that the village was bombed or destroyed by some powerful weapon?" Woolsey continued to probe.

"It seems the most likely explanation."

"How long before we have visual of the village?" Sheppard asked.

"Five minutes." McKay answered

"How many people were left in the village?" Teyla asked.

"Twenty chose to stay and at least fifty were made outcasts." Sheppard answered. "But I am not sure how many of those made outcasts returned to the village."

"Rodney." Zelenka called from the doorway. "There might be a pro-" Before he could finish the plasma screens in the conference room began displaying static.

"What happened?" Sheppard asked.

"We lost signal." McKay answered.

"Thank you, I hadn't guessed. Why?" Sheppard responded.

"I don't know yet."

"I believe it was a projectile." Zelenka answered.

Before anyone could ask further questions Ronon asked, "can you display the last few seconds of the video camera."

"Yes." McKay answered as he scrolled back until an image was displayed. He went further back and started playing the captured feed. "What are you looking for?"

"That." Ronon and Teyla answered simultaneously.

"What the hell?" Sheppard asked.


	34. Chapter 34

"Hang on." McKay said. "Let me go back a couple of frames and zoom in on that part of the image."

The screen showed the previous frames and then the image paused. A green box appeared on the top edge of the screen over the area, which had caught every ones attention. The screen switched black and then displayed a magnified view of the area.

"McKay what is that?" Sheppard questioned unable to take his eyes from the screen.

"It looks like a ship." Woolsey put forward.

"Yeah, but not like anything we have seen before." Sheppard added.

"This can't be correct." McKay muttered before turning to Zelenka. "You sure this corresponds to the same time frame?"

"Absolutely and look at this." Zelenka answered pointing to something on his tablet PC.

"That means that.." McKay started.

"It is worse than that. Look at this."

"This is not good." McKay replied.

Woolsey cleared his throat, hoping to bring the scientists' attention back to him, but to no avail.

"Look at this one as well." McKay continued.

"That means the area spread to-"

"McKay." Sheppard finally snapped.

McKay and Zelenka looked up from the tablet PC screen to see four frustrated looking faces looking at them. McKay looked back at Zelenka and said, "fill them in." As he headed for the door of the conference room.

"Me? Why me?" Zelenka questioned.

"Because I need to spend my time analysing these readings not wasting it explaining kindergarten concepts." McKay called over his shoulder as he left the room, leaving an awkward and nervous Zelenka standing in front of the others. Zelenka muttered something in Czech and then began.

"Ok, just before we lost contact with the UAV I picked up several strange sensor readings, one of which was a projectile heading towards it. Obviously it made contact and hence we lost the signal."

"What about the other strange readings? And what was that ship type thing?" Sheppard asked.

"Well that ship type thing, as you put it was, we think was a massive ship."

"By massive you mean?" Woolsey probed.

"Like one of your naval aircraft carriers."

"It did not look that big." Woolsey stated.

"That is because it was so far away."

"Which you know how exactly?" Sheppard asked.

"Ah, well firstly as I mentioned moments ago I picked up several strange sensor readings. One was the projectile; another was a large slow moving object on the radar. Now the radar on the UAV was very rudimentary, so in general we could only use it for working out a bearing and the distance to the object rather than size and speed. But whatever this ship is it is giving off a strange energy signature, which one of the other sensors detected and tracked. Then when we combine this with-"

"Dr Zelenka, is there a two line summary?" Woolsey asked.

Looking slightly perturbed Zelenka replied. "Ok in combination with several other sensor readings and the visual we know it is big."

"But an aircraft carrier?" Sheppard asked. "It really did not look anywhere near that size."

"Yes, but it was very far away and we just caught a glimpse of it. You see…. how can I explain this? Ah yes." Zelenka said. "Imagine my eye is the camera and my head is the UAV." He began as he bent over so his nose was pointing directly to the ground. "Now the camera, my eye is pointing down you see and it is basically fixed. But like an eye there is peripheral vision, so I can kind of make out what is at my level and ahead of me." He explained pointing at some random point whilst his nose still pointed to the floor. "So as you ca-"

"What are doing?" McKay asked as he re-entered the room.

"He is explaining how that small object on screen can actually be as big as an aircraft carrier." Sheppard said.

McKay just looked at Zelenka in disbelief and shook his head as Zelenka stood up straight looking embarrassed. "Who said anything about an aircraft carrier?" McKay asked.

"Zelenka." Sheppard started. "You saying it is not the size of a carrier?"

"Of course not." McKay answered. Sheppard and Woolsey relaxed slightly until McKay continued. "It is much bigger."

"Assuming you are right, how could it possibly fly?" Sheppard asked.

"I have no idea. We only have 1.72 seconds of footage and that is looking at a very small part of it, which is probably not the engines."

"Hang on a few minutes ago you and Zelenka were looking at readings ooing and ahhing and all that came to a 'I have no idea'."

"Firstly I don't oo or ahh. Secondly we were talking about something else for the most part."

"Will one of you just say what was so interesting?" Ronon demanded in a low growl.

"Ok. Ignoring the huge ship that is some how flying through the air, that the UAV caught sight of, the sensors also picked up several other energy signatures pretty much identical to the one we had a visual on."

"So there is more than one of those things on the planet?" Sheppard asked.

"Yes."

"How many?"

"At least five. But there were also a greater number of other signatures implying the possible existence of smaller craft." McKay said.

"So are we talking about an invasion?" Woolsey asked.

"It would seem a good bet, but we really need more data."

"How are you planning on getting that?" Sheppard asked.

"Sending another UAV, or a cloaked jumper."

"Not meaning to nitpick here, but the last UAV made it nowhere near the village before it got shot down, so why do you think it would make it any further this time?" Said Sheppard.

"That's why I said a cloaked Jumper."

"Will the cloak be effective?" Woolsey asked.

"That is assuming the Jumper is not blasted out of the air before the cloak can be engaged having come through the gate." Sheppard added.

"Probably."

"Probably?" Sheppard mirrored.

"There is no way to tell until we were there, but it should keep the Jumper concealed for sometime, although, possibly not indefinitely." McKay explained.

"Ok then." Sheppard said.

"Colonel are you really supporting the idea of sending a Jumper to a planet, possibly undergoing an invasion by a far superior military, in terms of technology and numbers. A Jumper that will be detectable and vulnerable for a few seconds. To do what? Let McKay get some readings? I thought we agreed minimal contact with these people."

"We did. But our people are still there and might need help."

"Not wanting to sound too blunt Colonel, but, if our people were still there wouldn't they have contacted us?"

"Well…" Sheppard began.

"If they have something that resembles a brain between them, they might have worried that using their radios would give their position away." McKay said.

"So how would you contact them?" Woolsey asked.

"We can adjust our sensors to look for small scale variations in the energy field cause by the cloak." McKay explained.

"So what is the mission you want to carry out?"

"One team, one Jumper through the gate. We look for survivors then gate to another address or five, before coming back here. If it is too hot to use the gate, we will lay low." Sheppard responded. As he saw the almost pleading look in McKay's eyes he added. "Of course we will gather as much intel as possible."

"If, and I do mean if, I give the go ahead there will be no back up. No rescue if it all goes wrong. As soon as you are through the gate you are on your own." Woolsey said.

"I know. It will be a strictly volunteer mission, led by me."

"Actually, I have a better plan." McKay said. "One that won't risk my… I mean, anybody's life."


	35. Chapter 35

"Ok McKay what is it?" Sheppard asked, dubious of what McKay's plan might be.

"You fly it remotely." McKay said with a smug grin on his face.

"Is that even possible?" Woolsey asked once McKay finished explaining his plan.

"Sheppard has done it before." McKay replied.

"That was round the city, not millions of miles away." Sheppard said sounding very doubtful.

"You will be in direct contact with it, the distance should not matter. For the most part it will be on autopilot. But occasionally you take brief control and adjust the bearing or the sensors, then return it to autopilot."

"McKay the Jumpers don't have autopilot." Sheppard responded, his voice full of disbelief.

"Actually that is not entirely true." Zelenka said. "We have being installing a prototype system on Jumper 9."

"McKay?" Sheppard questioned.

"Why was I not aware of this?" Woolsey asked.

"Well it was a side project that we started when Sam was in charge. We spend our free time working on it." McKay explained. "But the point is it works."

"Most of the time." Zelenka added, causing McKay to turn and glare at him.

"Most of the time?" Sheppard questioned.

"Ninety per cent of the time, no problem. For eight per cent of the time it can get a bit ropey. Then for the other two per cent, well it kind of." McKay stopped speaking and held his hand out in front of him and glided it downwards.

"Hang on a minute. You have not destroyed any Jumpers. Have you?" Sheppard asked.

"No. They have only crashed in simulations." McKay defended.

"So you want to use a system developed without using the normal controls and safety checks, which has never being really tested?" Woolsey questioned.

"We have tested it. Never in an unmanned Jumper, mind you. But we have had successful trials."

"How many real successful trials?" Sheppard probed

McKay and Zelenka exchanged looks before Zelenka answered, "four."

"And a half." McKay added.

"And a half?" Sheppard questioned.

"You summoned me and I had to abandon the trial half way round." McKay explained. "Look if we do it your way we could loose the Jumper and us. Do it my way we could loose a Jumper."

"How will we get the Jumper back? Assuming it does not crash." Woolsey asked.

"The autopilot will be set to dial another gate address. It comes through, we are waiting and bring it back." McKay explained.

"How long before we can put your plan into action?" Sheppard asked.

"One hour." McKay answered as Zelenka simultaneously said,

"One day."

Sheppard looked at Woolsey who nodded. "Ok then, we launch in sixty minutes. McKay, Zelenka do what you do. I will send another team to the escape planet, ready to rescue the Jumper."

"Very well, we will meet back here in fifty minutes." Woolsey said,

"Actually, it would be best if Sheppard did this from the chair room. It should make his connection with the Jumper more stable." McKay interrupted. "Also we will need some help to strip all the stuff linking the Jumper to Atlantis."

Sheppard nodded to Teyla and Ronon, who followed McKay and Zelenka to the Jumper bay. "Ronon." Sheppard called after them. Once Ronon had turned Sheppard said, "if he tries to name anything, like for example the autopilot system, shoot him." Ronon cracked a broad grin and continued heading for the Jumper bay.

"Do you really think this will work?" Woolsey asked Sheppard.

"I don't know, but McKay seems pretty confident." Sheppard answered.

"In my limited experience of dealing with Dr McKay he always seems confident." Woolsey replied ruefully.

"Not always." Sheppard returned. "He lost his confidence after he blew up that solar system. Anyway, the worse that will happen if this goes wrong is we will loose a Jumper." He shrugged.

"Very well. I will start recalling the other off-world teams." Woolsey said as Sheppard jogged down the steps.

Down in the Jumper bay Teyla and Ronon were carrying supplies out of Jumper 9.

"How is Jennifer?" Teyla asked Ronon.

"Fine." He said in a voice that sounded almost forced. "I think."

"I thought that Jennifer was no longer angry at you?"

"She's not." Ronon replied placing the crates at the side of the bay.

"So why are you not sure if she is ok? I was under the impression things were going very well between you and Jennifer."

"They were." Ronon finally said.

"Until?" Teyla prompted.

"This morning. She just suddenly got distant."

"What did you do?" Teyla immediately asked as they re-entered the Jumper.

"Nothing. One minute she was fine, the next she would barely say two words."

"Great you have turned Jennifer into you." McKay said without looking away from his screen. Ronon glared at him, whilst Teyla shook her head.

"Ronon, that does not seem like Jennifer. Go and talk to her."

"Need to finish this."

"We are nearly done. I can finish the rest." Teyla smiled. "Go."

Ronon looked at Teyla, then turned and went off to find Jennifer.


	36. Chapter 36

Ronon eventually found Jennifer standing on one of the balconies, staring out at the ocean.

"Hey." He gently called as he approached.

"Hi." Jennifer responded.

"Did I do something to upset you?" He asked,

"No." Jennifer said surprised. "Why would you think that?"

"You were a little distant earlier."

"Sorry."

"Why are you apologising?" Ronon asked.

"You said I was distant." Jennifer replied.

Feeling confused Ronon stood next to Jennifer at the edge of the balcony. "So you ok?" He asked.

"Yeah. No. I will be."

"You want to talk about it."

"Not yet." Jennifer replied. As she saw a glimmer of hurt flash across Ronon's features, she added. "I will. Just not right now." Ronon relaxed slightly and the two remained silent. "So where have you been?" Jennifer changed the subject.

"Watching McKay try to find out why we lost contact with the guys scouting out the mines."

Jennifer stiffened and asked. "What scout? When did we loose contact?"

Realising that Jennifer had been so pre-occupied with what was bothering her she had no idea what was going on, Ronon filled her in. When he was finished Jennifer asked. "How many people were still in the village?"

"Not sure. Wasn't really listening."

"Is this because we shut down the mine?"

"Maybe." Ronon answered as Jennifer lowered her head. "No you don't" Ronon ordered.

"Don't what?" Jennifer questioned.

"Feel responsible or guilty. As far as I am concerned the whole village should have been held responsible for what they did to you. Not just a few of them. And it is not Atlantis justice that I would have handed out. Anything that has happened to them, they bought on themselves. They are the only ones responsible." Ronon finished. Jennifer's reply was cut-off by Ronon's radio bleeping. "Go ahead." He spoke into the microphone. After a pause he grunted, "ok." Then turned his attention back to Jennifer.

"They are ready in the control room. I need to go."

Jennifer nodded and followed Ronon off the balcony. After a couple of minutes Ronon realised Jennifer was not heading for her quarters. "Where are you going?" He asked.

"Control room."

"Why?"

"I need to know what is happening."

Before Ronon could answer Jennifer entered the transporter and they were both at the control room. When they reached the top of the steps Woolsey looked up from McKay's console and said.

"Dr Keller. I was not expecting you here. Shouldn't you be resting?"

"She is observing." Ronon said, staring intently at Woolsey, challenging him to disagree.

"Very well. You might as well join the others."

"Others?" Jennifer questioned

"Hey doc." Lorne greeted, causing Jennifer to turn round and see that all of Lorne's team from the fateful mission were assembled in the control room. Leaving Ronon's side she joined them. Woolsey then nodded to McKay who radioed Sheppard.

"Ok, you ready Sheppard?" McKay asked. "The video feed from the front of the Jumper should be displayed on the screen in front of you."

"Yeah, I see it, just give the word." Sheppard replied from the Chair.

"Before you do this Colonel I would just like to ask you not to start any wars." Woolsey said on the radio link.

"Now he finds a sense of humour." Sheppard muttered to himself.

"I don't think he was joking." Zelenka said from the other side of the Chair room.

"Dialling the gate now." McKay's voice sounded over the radio. "Ready when you are. Remember to activate the cloak the second the Jumper is through the gate."

"Starting Jumper engines now." Sheppard said. "Leaving Jumper bay." He added. As the Jumper stopped in front of the gate he said, "here goes nothing." Then the Jumper disappeared through the event horizon.

The screen in front of Sheppard flashed white and then as the Jumper emerged through the other side of the wormhole the greenery of the planet became visible. "Activating cloak now." Sheppard said.

"Confirmed cloak active." McKay responded.

"So far so good. I am heading straight to the village. McKay keep an eye out for signs of our people."

In the control room Lorne's team, Jennifer, Ronon, Teyla, McKay and Woolsey were staring at the visual feed as well. "Is that smoke?" Teyla asked.

"Looks like it." McKay replied. "As we thought, it seems to be coming from the village."

"Why is it still smoking?" Woolsey asked.

"Smoke can be visible for hours after a fire." McKay shrugged. "It dos not seem too dense so it is probably not from a very active fire. Hang on. Sheppard do you read?"

"Go ahead McKay."

"According to the sensors there is a lot of activity coming from near the village area and the mines."

"By activity you mean those weird energy signatures from earlier?" Sheppard asked.

"Yes. Your current path should avoid flying directly into them, but not by much. I am transferring the adjusted sensor readings to the Chair room now. The red dots you want to avoid."

"Ok I am getting the feed. Most of them seem to be coming from the mines." Sheppard responded. "Looks like we found the other buyers then."

"How is it handling?" Mckay asked

"Like an old Atari ST game." Sheppard answered.

"Ok. Good, I guess. Try to stay out of trouble for a couple of minutes I need to check these readings." McKay distantly answered.

"Why are you not on autopilot yet?" Woolsey asked.

"Well we decided my remote flying was better than McKay's program so I will remotely fly for as long as possible, then engage the autopilot." Sheppard answered.

"There is nothing wrong with my program." McKay said whilst typing. "You just don't want to be shown up by a computer."

"Gentlemen." Woolsey cut-in, preventing Sheppard's come back.

"Ok, getting a visual on the village." Sheppard said.

"We see it John." Teyla responded.

"That is not how I remember it." Sheppard said. "I thought there was more to it."

"There was." Teyla said, her voice full of concern.

"I am going to get the Jumper closer to the ground." Sheppard said as he adjusted the altitude and started a low pass. "See I thought there were buildings."

"Yeah well, now there is just smouldering ash." McKay responded.

"You getting any lifesigns?" Sheppard asked.

"From the village no. From the mines, it is hard to tell."

"Ok, I will do a couple more sweeps of the village…or not. I think they are on to us."

"Why?" Woolsey asked.

"Look at the sensors, two dots closing in on the Jumper." Sheppard answered.

"Engaging autopilot and the escape routine now." McKay said. "Shutting the gate down. Ok. If it the escape plan worked we should get our Jumper back in ten minutes."

"And if not?" Woolsey asked.

"Then we don't see the Jumper again."


	37. Chapter 37

The personal in the gateroom stared expectantly at the gate, waiting for the Jumper to return. Sheppard, who had returned to the control room when the autopilot was engaged, was pacing in front of McKay.

"How long has it been?" Woolsey asked.

"Seventeen minutes." McKay answered glaring at Sheppard, who was ignoring how much his pacing was annoying McKay.

The room fell silent again as all eyes remained fixed on the gate. Suddenly the ring burst into life as a wormhole was established.

"Receiving an IDC." Chuck said. "It is SGA 8. Transmission coming through."

"Atlantis do you read?"

"Go ahead. This is Sheppard."

"We have the Jumper Sir."

"That's good. Mind telling me why you are late? I thought marines prided themselves on their timing." Sheppard replied.

"Well Sir, the Jumper had a bit of company when it came through the gate. We thought it was best to gate to a couple of other addresses before returning home."

"Good thinking Captain." Sheppard replied before Woolsey jumped in.

"Are you sure that you are not being followed?"

"Yes Sir. It was a small recon device that came through the gate after the Jumper. We blew it up, then gated away. We are confident that we covered our tracks."

"Very well. We are lowering the shield." Woolsey said, nodding to Chuck to deactivate the shield.

"McKay get up to the hanger bay and find out what happened after we lost contact, what followed the Jumper through and what type of force we are looking at." Sheppard ordered. "While you are at it, see if you can find any weaknesses in the enemy. Make sure you scan the data for any sign from our guys." Sheppard added. "Oh and find out just how they were able to find our cloaked Jumper."

"Would you like coffee with that?" McKay muttered as he left the control room before calling. "Zelenka! Hurry up."

As SGA 8 came through the gate in their Jumper, towing the one that had been on autopilot Sheppard radioed. "Captain when you are parked get down here ASAP for a de-briefing."

"Notify me when SGA 8 is ready. I had better start on the report." Woolsey said, before heading to his office.

Sheppard turned and started heading for the conference room. He noticed Major Lorne's team and Jennifer heading through the door. "Major, where are you going?"

"To the briefing Sir."

"Why?"

"To find out what is going on. I mean, we kind of kicked this chain of events off."

"None of what is happening is your fault." Sheppard said firmly. "Besides aren't you all meant to be resting?"

"The doc cleared us to be here."

"The same doctor who is currently not cleared to clear you or be here?"

"Sounds about right."

"Just go in there and sit down before you all collapse." Sheppard eventually responded before turning to Ronon. "I thought you were meant to be stopping the doc from working." He said when the others were out of earshot.

"She is just observing." Ronon answered.

"And this way he is able to keep a closer eye on her." Teyla added with a hint of a smile.

Before Sheppard could respond SGA 8 came bounding up the steps.

"Colonel." Captain Shaw greeted.

"Captain. Go take a seat in the conference room, I will get Woolsey."

Woolsey eventually followed Sheppard into the conference room and took his seat at the head of the table. Getting straight down to business Woolsey said.

"So Captain, this remote drone that followed the Jumper through, was it armed?"

"There were no obvious weapons, but it looked very different to what we had seen before, so there could well have been some weaponry."

"So it did not fire on you?"

"No Sir."

"Let me get this straight you shot down an alien device, which showed you no hostile intentions."

"Sir it did not fire on us as we were cloaked. I was told that if the Jumper came through, to assume it was under attack."

"It's alright Captain, you followed the rules of engagement." Sheppard assured him as Woolsey furiously scribbled on his notepad. "I take it you completely destroyed whatever it was?"

"Yes Sir. I also assumed that just in case it had a transmitter you would not want us picking up the debris. So as soon as the gate de-activated we grabbed the Jumper and gated through to a backup site."

"I think I have found them." McKay exclaimed bursting into the room, typing on his tablet PC.

"Found who Dr McKay?" Woolsey asked, unable to hide the strain in his voice.

"Our team."

"Alive?" Sheppard asked.

"No way to tell for sure."

"Then how do you know you found them?" Woolsey asked.

"Using very complex analysis techniques, which you will have no hope of understanding." McKay explained smugly, before noticing the irate looks on Sheppard's and Woolsey's faces. "No offence." He added looking slightly apologetic. "Anyway the point is I know where the Jumper is and there is no hostile activity nearby."

"So we can just go in and get them?" Sheppard asked sounding hopeful.

"Colonel the last Jumper that went through was found by the enemy, despite being cloaked." Woolsey interrupted.

"Yes, but not because they can see through our cloak." McKay said as if explaining to a small child.

"And you know that because…?" Sheppard asked.

"The second we shut off communication with the Jumper, the hostile vessels stopped tracking it. If they could see through the cloak, the Jumper would have been shot down."

"So how did they find it in the first place?" Lorne asked.

"We were effectively sending out a homing beacon."

"The Jumpers don't have homing beacons." Woolsey said.

"I don't mean a homing beacon in the traditional sense. Look we were sending information to the Jumper and the Jumper was sending us the scans and pictures. They, that is these aliens, intercepted the data packet the Jumper was transmitting and used it to home in on the position."

"So as long as there is no communication, the Jumper is undetectable?" Sheppard asked for clarification.

"Yes."

"So we could just program the Jumper to go in, pick up the other Jumper and leave?" Sheppard questioned.

"No." McKay answered. "Well in principle yes, but the other Jumper is still cloaked. To pick it up will need to be done manually. We have managed to extend the cloak to cover the grapping hook, but the hooking will need someone at the controls."

"Then I do not believe that we can risk it." Woolsey said. "If the crew are still alive, then I am sure they can wait it out until the hostiles leave. Then we will go in and get them."

"Bollocks to that." Kenyon exclaimed. "We can't just leave them there."

"That decision is not up to you." Woolsey calmly responded.

"Look the Jumpers are clearly not detectable as long as they don't transmit, so it will be an easy in, easy out mission." Sheppard countered.

"Well he has jinxed it now." Young whispered to Lorne.

"You really want to risk more lives to rescue a team that we don't know are still alive?"

"Can I remind you, Elizabeth, McKay Carson, Ronon, Teyla and myself risked our lives to save you and General O'Neill, when your status was unknown." Sheppard answered. "We do not leave men behind. No matter what the risk is."

Woolsey took off his glasses and cleaned them, whilst considering his response. "Ok Colonel. One attempt and only one. If you can't get them this time we wait."


	38. Chapter 38

After Woolsey had finally agreed to allow the rescue mission, Sheppard's team quickly disappeared to prepare, whilst SGA 8 went for their post mission checks. Lorne's team and Jennifer remained seated round the conference table until the room was clear, then stiffly made to stand and leave.

"You think they are still alive Sir?" Kenyon asked Lorne.

"Yes." Lorne replied without a trace of doubt as he headed to the door.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because when I am in that situation I always want to believe that people are looking. They look a lot harder when they think you are alive." Lorne answered before adding. "Kenyon. Do me a favour and when in a briefing with Woolsey don't say 'bollocks'. Woolsey gives me enough grief as it is."

"But the Lieutenant swears all the time in briefings." Kenyon protested.

"True, but he does it in American English." Lorne grinned, descending the steps of the control room.

"Hey doc you ok? You seem pretty quiet?" Young asked before Kenyon could respond.

"Yeah, I'm fine thanks." Jennifer replied as she followed Lorne down the steps. As she reached the bottom Lorne asked.

"You heading back to your quarters?"

"I guess."

"Good I will walk with you." Lorne smiled, gesturing for Jennifer to walk in front of him. He then quickly turned to face the rest of his team. "Try not to get into any trouble."

The other three gave a "Yes Sir," and Lorne followed Jennifer out of the control room. They walked at a slow pace, drawing the silence out further. Eventually Jennifer asked.

"How is your jaw?"

"Fine. I have had way worse."

"That is nothing to be proud of."

"True. Scars are way better." Lorne joked. "So what is eating you?"

"Nothing important." Jennifer replied. "I guess I am just missing work."

"You are still a terrible liar." Evan replied before adding, "unless you are misguidingly trying to protect someone. So from the fact you are blatantly lying, that is obviously not the case."

"Very good Jessica Fletcher."

"Of all the characters to compare me to you choose J P Fletcher?"

"You have a minute?" Ronon's gruff voice interrupted.

"I'll leave you to it. But don't think this is over doc." Lorne said, causing Ronon to immediately tense. Noticing the movement Lorne quickly added. "That comment is so much more innocent than it sounds. I'll be off then. Catch you later." He then moved as quickly as his battered body would allow him.

Ronon turned and faced Jennifer, who looked at him with an unimpressed glare. "What?" He asked.

"I thought you were going to stop hitting and threatening my friends?"

"I didn't say or do anything. It is not my fault he is jumpy." Ronon replied, Jennifer just lifted an eyebrow, before saying.

"You all ready?"

"Yeah. McKay is just doing his gadget thing. We should be going in about twenty minutes."

"Shouldn't you be in the Jumper or something then?"

"I wanted to say goodbye and make sure you are ok."

"As much as I appreciate that, I would be far happier if you were concentrating on not getting shot down or captured." Jennifer smiled, although her eyes betrayed her worry.

"I'll be fine." Ronon answered.

"Remember your ribs are still bad and you can't fight as well as normal." Jennifer replied her voice now full of concern.

"The only person I am likely to need to fight on this mission is McKay, when he won't shut up. Don't need good ribs for that." Ronon smiled.

"Just be careful and don't do anything reckless."

Ronon closed the gap between them and gently gripped Jennifer's shoulders. "Is that your medical advice?"

"No." Jennifer semi-laughed. "You never follow medical advice."

Ronon drew Jennifer into his arms and held her for a minute before saying. "I promise I will be careful." He then gently kissed the top of her head. "You should rest. I'll be back in no time." He added pulling away. He then turned and headed back to the Jumper bay, failing to hear Jennifer say, in a voice barely above a whisper. "Be careful."

**A/N:** Sorry this is one is so short. Next one will be longer.


	39. Chapter 39

"Ok McKay, have you finished?" Sheppard asked from the control seat of the Jumper.

"No." McKay answered from his position under a console in the Jumper.

"How about now?" Sheppard asked again as Ronon walked into the Jumper and took a seat opposite Teyla.

"No." McKay snapped as he paused what he was doing and looked at Sheppard. "This would go a lot faster if you stopped asking."

"I wouldn't need to ask if you had finished when you were meant to have finished."

"You set the time frame not me." McKay spat back.

"How long have they been doing that?" Ronon asked Teyla as he nodded his head in the direction of Sheppard and McKay.

"At least ten minutes." Teyla replied warily. "I am beginning to think that I am the first mother who works with people who are more childish than her baby son."

"Hey." Sheppard and McKay exclaimed simultaneously as they briefly stopped their bickering. Ronon and Teyla exchanged amused glances.

"You sure you should be coming?" Sheppard asked as he turned to face Ronon. "I mean you took one hell of a beating."

"I thought you were going to stop mentioning that." Ronon replied, his tone far from impressed.

"No. I don't recall ever agreeing to that. But seriously should you be coming?"

"Yeah."

"The doc ok with it?" Sheppard asked.

"As long as I only fight McKay." Ronon replied causing Sheppard to look confused and McKay to look worried.

"Carson said you could fight McKay?" Sheppard questioned.

"No, Jennifer."

"Carson told you to fight Jennifer? Or Jennifer told you to fight McKay? To be honest neither of those sound believable. Actually I don't want to know." Sheppard said, as he turned round to face McKay, who was still under the front console. "McKay you done?"

"Yes." McKay answered as he clambered out from under the console.

"Well why did you not say so. Let's go." Sheppard said, unable to keep the surprise from his voice. He lent forward and hit a couple of buttons on the console in front of him, causing the onscreen displays to come to life. He then tapped his radio. "Control room, this is Sheppard we are ready." He paused and looked at McKay, then added, "finally."

"Very good Sheppard you have a go." Woolsey's voice replied over the speaker system.

"Well we will see you kids when we get home." Sheppard returned as the Jumper dropped into the gate room.

"Colonel although reckless, this is still an official mission and the correct communication protocols should be followed." Woolsey replied causing McKay to roll his eyes and mouth, "tool."

"Sorry Woolsey. Launching now." Sheppard said as the Jumper disappeared into the shimmering event horizon.

As soon as the Jumper emerged through the gate Sheppard engaged the cloak. Unlike on the previous mission, with the unmanned Jumper, this time the enemy vessels were much closer to the gate.

"You sure they won't spot us if we stay off the radio?" Sheppard asked.

"Pretty much." McKay answered.

"Pretty much? That does not fill me with confidence."

"Normally I would say yes, but we know nothing about this race. For all we know they could be the descendents of one of my ancestors and everyone could have my intelligence. In which case, they might be able to find a way round the cloak technology."

"You know McKay, I don't know what I find more disturbing. The thought of thousands of Rodney McKay's making up a civilisation, or the fact that you have clearly thought about it." Sheppard retorted.

"How long until we reach the last position of the other Jumper?" Teyla interrupted.

"Should be ten minutes. If we don't make to many detours." McKay answered as he changed the onscreen display to a radar like image. "The good news is that the last known position is still void of the alien ships."

"What are we going to do when we find it?" Ronon asked.

"Why do you bother going to briefings if you never listen?" McKay asked. "It is not exactly a complex task. I mean a biologist could follow it." He continued before Ronon's glare cut him off.

"I meant, we can't communicate to them, without giving our position away right? So how do we let them know it is us?" Ronon said. "If we were in the Jumper and something hooked us, wouldn't we try to shoot it down?"

"Well I came up with a way to let them know it is us." Sheppard said with a smug grin on his face.

"It is hardly a difficult idea." McKay muttered.

"And yet you did not come up with it." Sheppard shot back before saying to Ronon. "The cloak can extend for short periods further than the Jumper limits. So we are going to extend it to the other Jumper and then I will get out and walk over to the other Jumper, bang on the door, go in, catch up, share a few beers and fly home."

"That easy?" Ronon asked, his voice sounding doubtful.

"That easy." Sheppard confirmed. "In theory anyway." He added sounding slightly less confident. Ronon rolled his eyes as Teyla raised her eyebrow.

"Ok. Here we go. You need to alter your course by half a degree." McKay said.

"Why?"

"One of the enemy ships is just over there. We could go have a look."

"McKay, you are not that brave, remember?" Sheppard said. "Besides I promised Woolsey that we would go straight in and straight out."

"Firstly there should be no danger. Secondly it would be straight, with a slight kink in this reference frame. But change coordinate system and it would be straight. Finally when did you become Woolsey's poodle?" McKay countered.

"What's a poodle?" Ronon asked.

"A dog." Sheppard answered, his voice displaying annoyance. "Ok we are approaching the Jumper position. You getting any readings McKay?"

"Give me a minute." McKay replied tapping on his console. "Ok I have it. It doesn't seem to have moved. I am putting it on the main display. But when you land remember there is an error on the position. Best to allow a metre." Seeing the questioning look on Sheppard's features he added, "Oh right, I mean about three feet."

"How far will the cloak extend?" Sheppard asked.

"About five feet for about 75 seconds."

"Can't you direct it so it extends more in one direction than another?" Sheppard asked.

"What is this Star Trek? No it will extend in a uniform way." McKay replied.

"Ok then. Coming into land now. Reducing speed. Lowering." Sheppard commentated as he brought the Jumper down to land next to the assumed position of the missing Jumper. "Ok we are down. McKay stay here and make sure the cloak does not fail. As soon as I give the go ahead collapse the cloak and head to the gate. We will follow. If for any reason their Jumper can't fly I will bring them across and we all go in one. Just make sure you wait for my signal."

"You want me to come with you?" Ronon asked.

"No. You and Teyla look after McKay, just in case things go wrong." Sheppard replied. Ronon did not look convinced, but nodded his agreement.

"Sheppard." McKay called.

Shepard turned back to McKay who was holding a small metal device. Sheppard took it from him and turned the object over in his hand. "Jumper keys?" He questioned. "And it is not even my birthday."

"It should unlock the cargo bay door. It is a simple override." McKay explained.

Sheppard nodded his thanks and took the safety off his P90. "Ok Rodney, ready when you are." With that he opened the Jumper's rear hatch and, having got the go ahead from McKay, headed towards the entrance to the other Jumper. As he approached he pressed a small button on the object that Rodney had given him. Suddenly, instead of seeing the greenery of the local plant life and distant trees, he saw the interior of a Jumper. Unfortunately he also saw the barrels of several guns aiming straight at him.


	40. Chapter 40

"Now is that anyway to greet you CO, after he came all this way to visit?" Sheppard asked.

"Colonel?" Moore questioned as he lowered his gun.

"That would be me." Sheppard replied, also lowering his P90.

"How did you find us?" Moore asked.

"Plenty of time for your questions later. Right now will the Jumper fly?"

"Yes Sir. But they can track it when flying."

"Were you using your radio at the time?"

"Yes Sir."

"Then it won't be a problem." Sheppard said, before turning to the back of the Jumper and briefly leaving through the hatch to signal the others. A couple of moments later he re-entered the Jumper and shut the hatch, before heading to the controls. "Ok we need to get out of here." As he entered the front of the Jumper he suddenly noticed there was one less man than he was expecting. "Where is Sanchez?" He asked.

"Didn't make it Sir." Moore answered, his voice full of regret.

Sheppard nodded and powered up the Jumper. He quickly checked the onscreen displays and when he was happy that the alien vessels were not closing in on their position, took off heading for the gate.

"Hopefully we won't draw any attention." Sheppard said to Moore, who had sat in the seat next to him. The Captain did not look entirely convinced. "Relax Moore, I have this all figured out."

"Do the aliens know that?" Moore replied, before adding, "sir."

"As far as the aliens are concerned, we don't exist. We are completely invisible as long as we don't transmit any em waves."

"If that is the case, won't dialling the gate draw their attention?" Moore asked.

"That is a good point. One I am sure that McKay has thought of."

"Or maybe not." Duffins said from the rear of the cabin as he pointed at the onscreen display, which was showing several alien vessels heading towards the gate.

"Can we help them?" Moore questioned,

"Hopefully, now the transmission has been sent they will be invisible again." Sheppard replied, although he did not sound entirely convinced. "Either that or they will run interference for us, allowing us to get to the gate clean." Sheppard said.

"Won't we have to redial the gate when we get there?" Moore questioned.

"No as soon as they are through they will send a signal back to hold the gate open, until we come through."

"What if the alien vessels go through?" Moore asked.

"Then we need to get through ASAP to provide cover fire. I am not entirely convinced about McKay's piloting skills."

"Dr McKay is flying the other Jumper?" Moore questioned surprised.

"Which answer would give you more faith in this plan?" Sheppard threw back.

Moore bit back his answer and watched the screen, trying to discover if the other Jumper was still visible to the aliens.

"I wish McKay had mentioned how to adjust the display to show a cloaked Jumper." Sheppard mused as he tried to decipher what was happening on the screen.

"Whoa." Sheppard exclaimed, "Did that just show what I think it just showed?"

"You mean two of the alien vessels disappearing?" Moore confirmed.

"Yeah. And seeing how McKay is the one piloting the other Jumper, I don't think they were shot down."

"They could have gone through the gate." Moore suggested. "Or cloaked."

"Either way, I think we will have a fight on our hands. Everyone buckle up we will be at the gate in two minutes. I take it weapons are operational?"

"As far as we know." Moore shrugged, before asking. "I don't suppose you came up with a way to allow the Jumper to remain cloaked when going through a gate?"

"'Fraid not." Sheppard responded. "We are going to be visible to all those unfriendly ships for at least three seconds. On the bright side we will get a good view of them as we pass." He added looking at the five ships they were approaching, that were in formation around the gate.

"How is that good?" Moore asked.

"Not sure yet. Just take in as much detail as you can." Sheppard ordered as they flew straight pass a hovering vessel.

"You sure they can't detect us?" Moore whispered.

"Yes." Sheppard whispered back, searching for any signs that they had been detected. The rest of the Jumper team remained silent. As they flew past the second ship the tension levels increased again.

"Ok here we go, de-cloaking in ten seconds." Sheppard announced, again in a hushed tone.

The rest of the group stared intently at the closest alien vessel, convinced it was about to open fire, but still the Jumper passed by seemingly undetected.

"Here we go. Lets hope their weapons are not powered up." Sheppard said as he turned the cloak off.

As soon as the Jumper became visible the closest alien vessel turned towards the Jumper and a greenish flash emerged from the side heading straight for the Jumper.


	41. Chapter 41

"This is so beyond not good." McKay exclaimed as he flapped his hands over the controls.

"Will the shields hold?" Teyla asked, from the seat next to McKay.

"For now, but they are draining fast."

"Just shoot them." Ronon suggested from the back.

"What do you think I am trying to do?" McKay said as another enemy shot hit the Jumper causing it to vibrate. "We will only be able to hold out for a maximum of two minutes." McKay said as one of the onscreen displays started flashing. "I really think that we should retreat."

"If we do that the gate will shut down and Colonel Sheppard will not be able to come through." Teyla reminded him.

"I know that. But he who runs away today lives to fight another day. If we don't retreat will be blown out of the sky and the gate will shut down anyway." McKay said just as another vibration rocked the Jumper, causing sparks to fly out from one of the panels. "Great, we have lost an engine."

"I say we maintain gate contact for another minute, give Sheppard a bit longer." Ronon said, ducking as another set of sparks flew out from the sides of the Jumper.

"I agree." Teyla confirmed.

"I don't." McKay muttered. "This is a bad idea."

"Perhaps you should focus your energy on evading their fire." Teyla suggested.

"And shooting them." Ronon added.

"This is not easy." McKay said as he tried unleashing another shot. Suddenly a bright flash filled the Jumper as an enemy ship blew up. "Did I do that?" McKay asked in awe.

"Nope." Ronon answered. "They did." He added pointing out of the front window at the second Jumper that had emerged through the gate, already showing signs of battle damage.

"Oh." McKay said sounding disappointed as the second Jumper cloaked and disappeared from the screen.

"Maybe you should stop transmitting and engage the cloak." Teyla said.

"Oh, yeah." McKay answered as another blast from the second enemy vessel hit the Jumper. "If it still works." McKay flinched away from the sparking console and held out a hand. "Here we go." He said as he hit the button, shutting his eyes in the process, waiting for something to explode. After a few moments he cracked open one eye and saw that nothing had blown up. Looking round he saw both Teyla and Ronon looking at him, confused by his behaviour.

"How will we know if it worked?" Ronon asked. "Other than the fact we did not blow up." He added.

"Well if we have not been blown out of the sky in, say two minutes, it probably worked." McKay answered as he piloted the Jumper away from the enemy vessel, which was being fired on by the other invisible Jumper.

"In the mean time perhaps you should help Colonel Sheppard to destroy the enemy vessel."

"You can't be serious. Have you seen how bad shape we are in? And you want me to go and fight?"

"They can't see us. We can see them. Just go in and shoot. Even you can't miss." Ronon said.

McKay muttered something under his breath, but took the Jumper back towards the alien vessel and began firing. Soon the second vessel exploded sending a shock wave towards the Jumper causing it to be thrown backwards, throwing its occupants from side to side.

"McKay, Teyla, Ronon. Do you read?" Sheppard's voice sounded over the radio.

"Ugggh." McKay groaned trying to lift himself up. "I guess we broke the inertial dampeners." Leaning forward he operated the radio and said. "McKay here."

"What took you so long?" Sheppard demanded.

"Took us so long?" McKay repeated baffled.

"To join in."

"I don't know. Maybe the heavy damage we sustained."

"Everyone ok?"

"I'm fine." McKay responded.

"Yeah, we are fine too, thanks for asking McKay." Ronon said.

"How bad is the damage over there?"

"It is pretty bad, but you will get a better view on the outside." McKay answered.

"Well I would if you were no longer cloaked."

"Oh right. There we go." McKay said as he disengaged the cloak.

"I've seen worse." Sheppard eventually said. "I assume you can make it through a couple of gates without crashing."

"Oh haha. If it wasn't for me you wouldn't even be here, so how about you show a little respect." McKay retorted.

"No I think I am good." Sheppard answered. "Ok we will go for the first four addresses on the plan. Try not to get lost."

"Ok we are ready here." McKay said.

"Great let's go home."


	42. Chapter 42

"Hey doc." Lorne greeted Jennifer as he stepped out onto one of the balconies.

"Hi." She threw back, briefly turning to face the Major.

"What are you doing out here? It is freezing."

"Just admiring the view and fresh air. I never really appreciated how good it was, until it was unavailable."

"I hear you doc." Lorne replied, giving a sympathetic smile, "but you will probably not be able to appreciate if you die from hypothermia."

"It is not that cold."

"Yeah it is." Lorne replied holding out a hand and touching Jennifer's face. "Geez you are cold. How long have you been out here for?"

"I don't know. Thirty minutes maybe." Jennifer replied before looking at her watch, "or maybe longer. Wow, I didn't know three hours could pass so quickly."

"Three hours?" Lorne asked surprised. "Come on, lets get you inside and get you some hot food." He added trying to usher her inside.

"I'll go in, in a bit." Jennifer dismissed his suggestion.

"No. You are going in now or I will get Carson to make it a medical order." Lorne said, Jennifer turned and glared at him.

"Look," Lorne began in a kinder tone. "You killing yourself out here is not going to make Ronon come back any quicker. All it will do is make him more grumpy than normal when he gets back. So lets go."

"Fine." Jennifer relented, making her way to the main corridor. "But I am not hungry."

As the two moved along the corridor to the mess hall Lorne asked, "you want to talk about whatever is bugging you?"

"No."

"It will make you feel better."

"I doubt it." Jennifer muttered.

"At least you are admitting something is bothering you." Lorne responded, causing Jennifer to glare at him once again.

"Major, Jennifer." Carson's Scottish tone interrupted. "What are you two up to then?"

He smiled warmly at them, before noticing how pale Jennifer was looking.

"Jennifer are you feeling unwell? You have no colour."

"I'm fine." Jennifer answered.

"She has been standing in the cold." Lorne explained.

"Now Jennifer you should know better. I thought we agreed it was still bed rest for you. Your wounds are still healing. Same goes for you to Major."

"I am just escorting the doc to get some food." Lorne replied.

"Well I was heading that way myself so we can all go together." Carson smiled.

"Only as long a you promise not to describe the details of any medical condition or procedures. I felt ill for days, the last time I shared a table with you." Lorne smiled.

"The military these days, no stomach." Carson shook his head. "Right lets get something to eat I am famished."

"You know I think I might leave you two to it. I am a bit tired so I might just lay down." Jennifer said as she started moving away from the two men.

"Not so fast doc." Lorne said. "When you have eaten something then you can sleep."

"And if I am not hungry?"

"Well seeing it as been hours since you last ate you can eat anyway." Lorne smiled signalling that Jennifer should start walking towards the mess hall. Jennifer muttered something unintelligible and started walking towards the mess hall.

"Now don't be like that lass." Carson said, "you bought this on yourself."

"You never follow your own medical advice either. I will know if I am pushing myself to hard." Jennifer said, turning round to face Carson. "I don't need the two of you," she pointed to the two men, "to follow me around and trea-." She paused briefly. "Oh forget it." She snapped turning round and storming off towards the mess hall, leaving Carson and Lorne looking bewildered in the corridor.

"That was most unlike Jennifer." Carson eventually said.

"Yeah." Lorne responded. "We should probably go after her."

"You don't think she needs some time to cool off a bit?" Carson asked. But his answer did not come from Lorne. Instead Jennifer came back towards them and said in a still annoyed tone.

"Are you coming?"

"Yes ma'am." Lorne said as he and Carson caught up with her.

"You know we are only trying to look out for you because we care." Carson eventually said.

"No need to smother me." Jennifer said.

"You misunderstand us doc." Lorne responded. "We care about us. If something happens who do you think Ronon is going to take his mood out on? That's right us. So ultimately we are just looking out for us." He smiled. "Ultimately this is your fault for choosing to date some one so moody."

"He is not-" Jennifer began before Lorne cut her off.

"Face it doc, I have dated women less moody than Ronon during their time of…" Lorne trailed off as he saw Jennifer's angry gaze. "Shutting up now."

"So I hear there is apple crumble on the menu today." Carson quickly changed the subject. "Although I doubt it will be as good the crumbles my mother makes. Now they are crumbles you could loose yourself in. With a bit of homemade custard as well. Of course her crumbles were not as good as her spotted dick."

Lorne looked to Jennifer, whose face was now showing a much more serene expression and whispered, "did he just say what I think he just said?"

"It is an English dessert." Jennifer whispered back as Carson continued to recall his mother's cooking, oblivious to the conversation being carried out between Jennifer and Lorne.

"You sure? Cos I heard they do crazy things in Scotland."

"I'm sure." Jennifer said shaking her head as they entered the mess hall.

Carson turned to Jennifer and Lorne. "Jennifer why don't you sit down and I will bring a tray over."

"I can choose my own food." Jennifer said, frustration creeping into her voice again.

"Aye, that you can, but with a broken hand you are not likely to be able to carry it, so go sit." Carson responded giving a shooing motion with his hand. Reluctantly Jennifer sat at an empty table and waited for Carson and Lorne to come over carrying three trays all laden with food.

"Not even Ronon could eat all of this." Jennifer said waving her good hand over the food.

"I don't know." Lorne said. "He once got through… Hang on." He said as his radio beeped. He said, "ok" a couple of times and then, "can you tell him we are in the mess hall?" Before turning his attention back to the two doctors.

"That was Chuck." He started. "Colonel Sheppard just returned." Jennifer's eye's widened in fear of what Lorne was about to say. "They rescued Moore's team. There was a bit of a fire fight, but Sheppard's team are all ok."

"And Moore's team?" Jennifer asked.

"Sanchez didn't make it." Lorne said sadly, "but everyone else is ok." Seeing that Jennifer looked like she was about to stand he quickly added, "they are all going to be in a debriefing for the next hour. You might as well finish your food. Ronon will come here once he is done."

**A/N:** Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing. I will try to get the next (and longer chapter) up soon. I just have to fix my keyboard first.


	43. Chapter 43

"Well if everyone is ready, shall we start?" Woolsey began. "Perhaps you can briefly describe what happened after your last successful check-in Captain."

"Well Sir, everything remained pretty uneventful for a couple of hours. No strange readings on the scanners. No flurry of activity. It was all as it was when we last made contact. Then suddenly the Jumper's longer range scanner picked up a huge object in orbit round the planet. Then a smaller object headed down to the planet. We maintained our position. The smaller object left the planet after about ten minutes and headed back up. As soon as it was away from the village, the scanners seemed to show the larger object splitting into several smaller, but still large objects, which then started approaching the surface. Making sure the cloak was enabled we took off towards their re-entry point for a better look. The smaller objects split into two groups, one headed for the village, the other seemed to segment and take up positions around the mine entrances. We headed for the village, but when we got there, the craft had started firing and it was levelled by the time we arrived. But to be honest, even if we had got there earlier there would not have been much we could do, I mean we have never seen ships or weapons like it. I mean the whole village was incinerated, the temperature the remains threw off was unbelievable. We did not detect any lifesigns fleeing the village, but we are not sure if they had already been removed, or ran at the first sign of the aliens, so we headed away from the villages to look for survivors. Eventually we picked up about ten lifesigns so we went for a closer look. Eight natives were being forcibly rounded up, by two armoured aliens."

"Did you get a good look at them?" Sheppard interrupted.

"At that stage not really. We kept our distant so not to alert them to our presence. It was hard to get a good view from our position." Moore clarified.

"Ok, continue." Sheppard urged.

"The eight natives were taken to one of the mine entrances. We parked the Jumper and observed from afar. Lots of people were being led in chains into the mine. Too many to just be the locals."

"Are you saying that they brought a workforce – presumably slaves or convicts -with them?" Woolsey asked for clarification.

"That is what it looked like." Moore confirmed and then paused as Woolsey carefully made some notes.

"Please proceed Captain."

"Well Sir, it did not look like a good situation, but we were aware that there was not much we could do to help. We knew we still had a few hours before you would make contact with us. We thought it would probably be too late to do anything by then. So we decided to see if there was anyone we could help. So we left the mine and flew back towards the village, looking for anyone who might have escaped. Eventually we picked up a couple of dots on the scanner. We moved over to the dots and got a visual, a woman and child. We landed about thirty metres away and Sanchez and Dover left to collect the mother and child. Myself and Duffins stayed in the Jumper, looking for any signs of enemy activity." As Moore stopped to take a sip of water Sheppard spoke to Dover.

"Dover what happened on the ground?"

"Well Sir." The obviously tired junior officer began. "We covered the ground to the locals quickly and without any problems. There was no sign of any hostile activity so we approached the pair. The woman was very upset and nervous. Eventually she calmed down enough to say that her home had been destroyed and the rest of her family taken. We offered refuge, which she accepted. Sanchez then radioed the Jumper to say we were returning. We started to walk back and she explained that the aliens had come to collect the naquadah and were not happy it was not ready. They refused to accept a reduced amount and left the village abruptly. As soon as the aliens had left everyone fled the village. Before long the aliens were back and fired down on the village destroying all their homes and anyone to slow to leave. They then started to round up the villagers. Eventually they reached a rocky outcrop, but so to did the aliens. The woman's husband hid her and the child and allowed himself to be caught. Before she could tell us anymore Captain Moore radioed to say that the aliens were approaching our position. We picked up the pace, but before long we were being fired on. Our P90s did not seem to do them any damage and hiding did not seem to help. Their scanners could pick us up. I ordered Sanchez to take the friendlies back to the Jumper as I acted as a decoy. But it did not. I mean I should have. It is." The young officer stopped and started as he tried to maintain his composure.

"It's ok Dover. Just take your time and tell us what happened." Sheppard said in a kindly tone.

Dover took a deep breath and started again. "I was pursued by three aliens, but managed to outrun them. I entered a rocky out crop and seemed to loose them. Suddenly Sanchez was on the radio requesting backup. He had been shot and the aliens were closing. Then he. I heard. I-" The officer faltered again.

"Sir. The Jumper recorded the transmission, perhaps it would be best to hear what happened." Moore interrupted.

Sheppard nodded his head in agreement and Moore typed at a console until the recording started.

"This is Sanchez. I am down. I repeat I am down. They are closing, requesting backup." Sanchez's voice played over the speakers.

"Moore here. How many are closing? We are three minutes away, can you hold them off?" Moore's voice played on the recorded transmission.

"I don't know Sir, they are closing oh sh-" Sanchez's voice was replaced by static.

"Sanchez come in you are breaking up."

"They are coming. I have never seen anything like them. I don't know if they are machine or humans. There seems to be a gun grafted to their arms. I think they have me." Sanchez's voice broke off again, this time replaced by weapons fire. "P90 bullets just bouncing off. They are here. Going to try taking them out, not much longer to go anyway, lost to much blood." Sanchez gasped. "It has been an honour." What sounded like the start of an explosion was heard and then static.

After a few moments of silence Moore said. "We lost his lifesign. We assumed he had detonated a grenade. But the two aliens remained on the scanner, they caught up with two other lifesigns, presumably the mother and child before we were even close. We went and found Dover, but somehow the aliens could see us despite the cloak. As soon as we got him on board we tried shaking them from our tail. As soon as we succeeded we landed and cut power to everything but the cloak and waited. We heard your transmission, but were worried about being detected again so maintained radio silence."

"Thank you Captain That will be all for now." Woolsey said. "If you could ensure that all data collected has been given to Dr McKay, then I want you and your men to have a few days off. I am very sorry for the loss of your team member."

"Thank you Sir." Moore replied as he and his remaining men stood. Sheppard nodded at them and they left, followed by McKay. When the door had shut again Woolsey turned to Sheppard.

"Any thoughts?"

"They are clearly a threat. We are going to need a lot more intel on them before we ever meet in person." Sheppard replied.

"Have either of you two ever heard of such a race as described by Sanchez?" Woolsey asked Teyla and Ronon.

"Not specifically, but they sound familiar to a race described in a story to me as a child. I will have to speak to my people though. I always assumed it was a story made up to ensure we would behave. It seemed to unbelievable." Teyla answered.

"Any information you can find will be useful." Woolsey said. "And Colonel, perhaps you can organise some intelligence gathering from the relocated natives and the former prisoners."

"I will send teams out tomorrow." Sheppard confirmed.

"Let's just hope they don't come after us until we have a suitable defence." Woolsey mused.

"Don't see why they would. They have kept a pretty low profile for a reason, hopefully that reason will give us some breathing space." Sheppard replied.

"I hope you are right." Woolsey answered, but did not seem convinced.


	44. Chapter 44

"Shouldn't you two be resting or rather sleeping?" Sheppard greeted Lorne and Jennifer as he joined their table in the mess hall.

"Well Sir I am surrounded by two doctors, so I thought I was covered." Lorne grinned back.

"Good point. What is your excuse?" Sheppard turned his attention to Jennifer.

"These two dragged me here." Jennifer replied pointing at Lorne and Carson. From his position behind Sheppard, Ronon just lifted his eyebrows.

"It was not so much dragging as coercion." Carson explained. "I am glad to see that you have not come back with any injuries requiring my attention."

"Trust me doc when I say so am I."

"And where are Teyla and Rodney? No let me guess Teyla has gone to see her wee nipper, whilst Rodney is either in the infirmary or trawling through data." Carson answered.

"Yes and the latter." Sheppard replied. "Well I am just going to grab a tray of food, you getting something buddy?" He asked turning his attention to Ronon.

"No, I am going to take the doc back to her quarters." Ronon replied, offering Jennifer a hand up.

"Ok have fun. But remember she is meant to be resting." Sheppard retorted causing Jennifer to turn a few shades redder as she walked out of the mess hall.

They walked in silence to Jennifer's quarters, with Ronon monitoring every movement and every breath that Jennifer made. When they finally entered her room she immediately turned to Ronon and asked.

"How are you? Are you sure you did not get hurt? How are your ribs?"

Ronon gently engulfed Jennifer in a hug and said, "I am fine. Nothing happened." He moved to break the hug so he could ask what was upsetting her, but found that Jennifer was holding on tightly to his back. So instead he continued to hold her, gently running one hand through her hair, enjoying the feeling of holding her in his arms. That was until he felt her small form tremble. He looked down and realised that she was sobbing into his chest. Suddenly concerned he held her tighter and tried to soothe her. When he felt that she was calming he pulled away and looked at her, concern swirling in his eyes.

"What is wrong? Has something happened?" Ronon asked.

Jennifer looked into Ronon's concerned eyes and began crying again, muffling 'sorry' into his shirt.

Ronon was now not only worried, but confused as well. "Why are you apologising?" He asked.

After Jennifer composed herself she said in a still shaky voice. "For doing this. I shouldn't. I mean you have just been on a mission, fighting some super-power aliens, risking your life, you don't need to come back to me acting like this."

"Firstly the worse part of the mission was being stuck in a Jumper with McKay, which I will get over." Ronon half smiled, trying to relieve some of the tension. "Secondly I just want to spend time with you. If you want to cry on me, that is fine. Of course I can think of a few better ways to spend our time together, but if crying is what you need to do, that is fine. As long as you tell me why."

"I am just so useless." Jennifer managed as she sniffed back tears.

"Useless? What are you talking about?" Ronon asked baffled.

"I got captured on the mission, upset the guards, was responsible for the boy dying, lied to Evan, nearly screwed up the escape, guilt you into going back and risking your life, all the while I am stuck here, not allowed to work, not even able to change my dressing, I am a doctor for gods sake, but I have to get Carson to give up his time and do my job for me." Jennifer finally paused for breath. "I am here not able to do anything. When I do go off world all I do is jinx the mission." Jennifer began to speak much quicker, working her self into an almost frenzied state, whilst Ronon did his best to keep up. "I am here and redundant. I can't help people here. I can't help people anywhere."

"What are you talking about?" Ronon finally interrupted. "You are a doctor, a healer. You help people everyday."

"But not when it matters." She cried out, followed in a whisper, "not now, not when it matters."

"What do you mean not now? You still help people." Ronon said, trying not to let his confusion sound too obvious.

"Not the ones I should." She sobbed.

Ronon carefully manoeuvred them towards Jennifer's bed and guided her so she sat on the edge. "What has happened? This isn't like you." Ronon tried again.

"Maybe it is. Maybe I am as weak as you originally thought."

"Never say that. You are brave and smart. That makes you anything but weak." Ronon suddenly put two and two together, but unfortunately made twenty. He gripped Jennifer's shoulders. "Who has hurt you? What did they do?"

Jennifer looked up into Ronon's protective eyes. "No one."

"Then what has happened?" Ronon pleaded.

Jennifer looked at him once more and tried to regain some composure. "When I was down the mine I was scared, but I knew you would save me eventually. But I didn't want to be dependent on you so I tried to be strong and all it did was nearly screw up the escape. When we got out and I got back here it felt like home. You were here and I knew you would look out for me. I felt weak, but I was starting to feel like I belonged." Jennifer continued to ramble through the tears, barely coherently. "Even despite everything that happens here I was no longer feeling homesick. But in reality on the mission I tried to be strong, to help, but I was weak. No one could depend on me. I failed Evan, my friend. I came back and I can't do anything and even if I could, would anyone want to risk their well-being by depending on me."

"Of course they would. You are important and a good doctor." Ronon said without hesitation.

"But they shouldn't. If my own father can't why should any of them?"

"What?" Ronon questioned. "What happened to your father?"

"He was ill. I should have been there, but I wasn't. I am a doctor, but I was not there for my own father."

"When? Why didn't you tell me?" Ronon asked.

"Last month and I didn't tell you because I didn't know. I am all he has, but he didn't tell me. He didn't trust me." Jennifer wept.

Ronon gently cupped Jennifer's face. "Jennifer." He said softly. "I am not like you or McKay. My mind does not work that quickly, I am going to need a little more information."

"He fell ill last month. He was really ill, but did not want me to know, so he had to fight it alone. If he told me I could have been there for him, helped in the diagnosis. But he didn't and instead I was here and I risked Evan's life and then I risked yours."

"Why didn't he tell you?" Ronon asked carefully.

"He said he knew it was hard for me to return home and in case I couldn't, he did not want me stuck wherever I was feeling helpless."

"So he did it to protect you?" Ronon asked, understanding her father's actions.

"But he shouldn't have had to. He should be able to depend on me."

"Perhaps, he did not want to you to see him weak." Ronon suggested.

"No. He is not like that."

"Why don't you visit him? I could get Sheppard to persuade Woolsey."

"No. I can't." Jennifer exclaimed.

"Why not?"

"I can't let him see me like this. He would worry."

"So you are going to lie to him to protect him?" Ronon said, unsure if Jennifer saw the irony.

"Yes, but there is no point him knowing, there is nothing he could do to help. All he would do is worry and probably make himself ill again."

"You and him alike?" Ronon asked.

"I guess, why?"

"No reason." Ronon smiled before turning serious again. "If your father had told you would you have been able to go back to Earth?"

"Yes. Probably, I don't know."

"Had you gone would the outcome have been any different?"

"No. But I would have been there for him."

"If you could not have gone, would your work here have suffered?"

"No, yes, maybe."

"Your father didn't tell you because he wanted to protect you, not because he doesn't think you are a good doctor or a good daughter. In the same way you are not telling him what happened to you. If he knew what you were doing out here I am sure he would be proud."

"It doesn't make me feel any less guilty about not being there."

"You need to learn you can't control everything. Sometimes things happen, you just have to move on." Ronon said as he sat on the bed next to Jennifer and drew her in for a hug.

"Is that the runner philosophy?" Jennifer semi snorted.

"Something like that." Ronon smiled into her hair.

"I'm sorry." Jennifer sniffed.

"For what?"

"Unloading all this on you."

"Just promise me next time something upsets you that you will tell me straight away."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, now sleep." Ronon ordered as he helped move her to the middle of the bed.

"Only if you stay with me."

"I'm not going anywhere."

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry for the delay, I had major problems with this chapter. Next one should be up tomorrow.


	45. Chapter 45

"Hey. What are you still doing here?" McKay asked as he saw Sheppard, Teyla and Lorne in the Mess hall.

"What do you mean, still here? We have only just got here." Sheppard responded confused.

"I thought you would be asleep by now." McKay shrugged.

"Asleep? We have only just got up." Sheppard said.

"What time is it?" McKay asked looking at his watch.

"Seven."

"Crap. My watch has stopped." McKay said. "I must have worked all night."

"Did you find anything?"

"Yes. It is really interesting. Their ships seem to use a completely different energy source to us or the wraith. The energy signatures are really fascinating. There are no millihertz oscillations, so either they are masking it really well or they do not us nuclear or ZPM technology." McKay explained as the other three exchanged bemused glances.

"McKay, I meant have you found anything I would find useful?"

"Well, no." McKay replied looking slightly defeated.

"So you pulled an all-nighter for nothing?" Lorne asked, causing Sheppard to smirk.

"You think research is easy? Hmm? Well let me tell you it is not. It takes skill, brains and hard work. Traits you clearly know nothing about." McKay snapped back.

"Rodney, perhaps some food would make you feel better and allow you to work more productively?" Teyla suggested.

"Hmmm? Food, oh yeah. I will just get a tray." McKay said, more to himself than the others as he headed to the kitchen area.

"Where is the little guy?" Lorne asked Teyla, once McKay had gone.

"In my quarters with Kanaan." Teyla said, causing Sheppard to tense. A movement that was not unnoticed by Lorne, who quickly changed topics.

"So you found a new, powerful enemy?" Lorne questioned. "I am impressed that is three in five years, four if you include the Genii, five for Michael." Lorne smiled, before adding, "Sir."

"What can I say, I have a magnetic personality." Sheppard half-heartedly scowled at his second in command.

"Is that what you call it?" Teyla questioned. "I just thought that you enjoyed spending time with your team and were finding enemies to ensure we would go on missions together."

"I can think of better ways to bond." Sheppard answered, causing Evan to nearly choke on his coffee.

"Did we miss something?" Jennifer asked, looking at Lorne.

"I am not sure." Teyla asked, looking confused.

"So I hear you have learnt some important lessons from Ronon." Sheppard quickly changed the subject, "like how to deck a guy bigger than you. I might have to replace McKay with you on missions."

"Hey. I am more than capable of fighting enemies, I just prefer to use my brains." McKay protested as he sat down with a tray laden with food, before Jennifer replied.

"Thanks, but no. I will be more than happy if I don't have to hit anyone again. I can't believe how much it hurts." Jennifer complained, waving her plastered hand in the air, causing the rest of the table to smile.

"Well if you held you wrist straight like I told you, you would not have broken anything." Ronon chastised, causing Jennifer to glare at him, whilst the rest of the table displayed even bigger grins.

"I have a question though." Lorne said. "Something that has been bugging me since the mine." The table turned and looked at him expectantly. "Where did you hide all the knives?"

"One in each of my boots." Jennifer shrugged.

"Doesn't that make it ridiculously uncomfortable to walk?" McKay questioned.

"The knife goes in a sheaf in the heel. It effectively replaces the plastic structure that exists in the heel of the boot." Jennifer explained. "You can easily fit a thin four inch switch knife in there."

"That is only two." Lorne replied. "You had at least four."

"You had four knives hidden on you?" Sheppard asked impressed.

"Four that weren't found by the guards." Lorne clarified.

"So where were the other two?" Sheppard asked.

"She is not answering." Ronon replied gruffly, causing Jennifer to turn red and Sheppard to raise an eyebrow.

"Really?" Sheppard responded wearing a big grin.

Ignoring Sheppard Jennifer, grabbed a piece of toast off her tray and avoided making eye contact with anyone at the table.

"Morning all." Woolsey greeted. "Dr Keller are you ok?"

"Mr Woolsey. I didn't know you were standing there." Sheppard said as he spun round to face the expedition's leader.

"I only just got here. Do you mind?" He asked pointing to a chair.

"Be my guest." Sheppard said. "The doc was just explaining how to conceal weapons."

"Ahh of course." Woolsey said, looking surprised and sceptical, especially as Jennifer was now turning redder.

"Are you feeling ok Mr Woolsey, you look somewhat, pale?" Teyla asked.

"Do I? It is probably because I have been up all night preparing a report for the IOA. In the last communication I had with them, they were not exactly happy about the prospect of another war."

"Does that mean they are prepared to let us engage the new race?" Lorne asked.

"No. Our standing orders were to avoid contact, I can't imagine that will change after reading the latest report."

"So the new people who are enslaved in the mines are …?" Sheppard questioned.

"On their own." Woolsey said, then speaking over Ronon's growl continued. "We can not risk starting a fight on another front right now. Especially against a race so far advanced."

"But we can keep gathering intel?" McKay asked.

"Absolutely, as long as there is no direct contact. But we must be more strict about revealing who we are."

"So we sit back and hope they go away?" Lorne questioned.

"Yes Major. For now that is all we can do. But the IOA has agreed to a new weapons program being established here, and the Apollo will bring new city defences. With any luck, when they have read the report, they might give us a ship permanently stationed here."

"I guess that is better than nothing, until McKay finds their weaknesses." Sheppard replied.

"Of course. It is up to me to save the day again." McKay said with his mouth full.

"Trust me when I say I would prefer to have the burden shared out amongst many." Woolsey smiled.

"Although if we had an army of McKay's I don't think that there would exist a city big enough to hold all the egos." Sheppard quipped.

"Well if you will excuse me I have the IOA gate update scheduled for ten minutes. Colonel I would imagine that we will need to meet straight afterwards." Woolsey said standing.

"I'll be right up." Sheppard said to Woolsey before downing his coffee and turning his attention to Lorne and Jennifer. "You two stop looking so down. We will free the people in the mines. Even if it takes years, we will go back and get them. In the mean time think about the people who are already safe. We can't win a war over night, but we will do everything possible to ease the casualties." Seeing Lorne and Jennifer give small nods, Sheppard headed after Woolsey and the rest of the table disbanded, leaving just Jennifer and Ronon.

"How are you doing?" Ronon asked.

"Ok. It just feels like the last few days has been nothing but a hollow victory." Jennifer replied.

"It will get better with time." Ronon said before explaining. "The sitting back doing nothing. It is never easy, but it gets easier to live with."

"Doesn't feel that way at the moment."

"Well that is why I have got a plan."

"A plan?"

"Yeah, to take your mind off what is happening here and back on Earth." Ronon smiled.

"What kind of plan?"

"Beach holiday." Ronon said looking very pleased with himself. On seeing Jennifer's stunned expression he quickly lost his grin and asked. "Did I get the name wrong? I am sure that is what Sheppard called it."

"Name sounds right, but can't think of anywhere that sounds suitable, that Woolsey would let us go to."

"It has already been sorted. We leave tomorrow for a small island on the far side of the planet. You, me, Sheppard, Teyla, McKay and Lorne's team. Sheppard persuaded Woolsey we all need, um, r and r. There is a small island a little way from the main beach area, which is all ours."

"Ours? How did you swing that?" Jennifer asked.

"You probably don't want to know. Now go pack." Ronon smiled. "Sheppard said it is a bit breezy and you should bring light cottons."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, save the bikini for next time. He said, you would explain that one to me."

"Maybe another time." Jennifer smiled. "But I wouldn't get your hopes up, my back is a long way off wearing anything like that."

Ronon stared at Jennifer before standing and leading her from the mess hall.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"To help you pack."

"Only if I can pack your things." Jennifer returned as the two headed down the corridors, looking forward to their days off.

_finis_

* * *

**A/N: **Thanks to everyone for reading this story. I may return and do a follow up based on the new race, but in the mean time I have several other plots running through my head that I might develop.


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